New Ninjas, New Game
by Lightning Shadowfire
Summary: Twenty years after the Fourth Great Ninja War ended, new ninja have graduated from the ninja academy. They have been placed on teams and have gone on some missions to get used to their new teammates. Now, the Hokage has decided that the Chunin Exams should happen again. With the exams just around the corner, how will the new genin handle the days before the exams begin?
1. Meet the Squads-Part 1

**Chapter 1: Meet the Squads- Part 1**

Nighttime was upon the Hidden Leaf Village. Some stars could be seen in the darkened sky if one looked hard enough, but mostly, the stars were hidden by the amount of light below in the village. The streets were full of people, since a lot of the markets and shops were still open. People were bustling about, in groups or alone, chatting the night away and laughter being emitted from some people because of some joke that was told. They were also going into or coming out of the shops and markets, sometimes stumbling over one another and almost falling onto their faces, but never did they swear or curse at one another when this happened. Instead, they smiled and laughed, just having a good time.

Beyond the liveliness and joy in the streets of the village, the Uchiha estate stood out at the outskirts of the village. There was no light coming from the estate, so that meant that no one was living in the place at all...or are there?

One house, out of all of the other houses, had a few lights on, indicating someone was living there. This person was bustling about; making sure that every single chore was done for the day. They didn't have a job and had to rely on the Hokage himself to get the money they needed to survive. Who was this person living in the Uchiha estate all alone? It was the younger brother of Itachi Uchiha, Sasuke Uchiha. He had somehow had been brought back to the village after a fight with Naruto (and he's still pretty pissed about it). He had no contact with the villagers outside of his home, which was good news to him. He didn't want to see anyone. However, one villager was an exception to this rule, the only one besides the Hokage that came to his house and stayed with him sometimes; a young girl by the name of Akahana Yamazaki.

* * *

_Akahana was a young girl, only about seven years old, when she first heard of Sasuke. Her mother had told her about him, and she had said some very negative things about him. Her mother had told her that he was an evil person who didn't think of others and had abandoned his village when he was only thirteen years old. He had also wanted to destroy the village for reasons unknown to her and had an older brother that killed off the entire Uchiha clan in one night. She told her daughter that, whatever she did, she was not allowed to go near Sasuke or the Uchiha estate. Usually being a good girl, Akahana had done so for a while._

_However, a little dastardly feeling called curiosity crept up on the young girl and she went over to the Uchiha estate late one night when she was supposed to be in bed. She didn't go in it, but stared into it, and it somehow fascinated her. She went back home and didn't dare tell her mother of this. She went back to the estate a couple weeks later at night, but this time, carrying a basket full of apples. She had found his house because the lights were still on and she left them by the door. She ran away afterward, not wishing to be seen. The next day, she returned to the house to find that the basket had been emptied. She somehow got onto one of the windows and peered inside. What she found delighted her; the person had taken the apples and stored them in their own basket on the small table in the kitchen._

_She came back a few weeks later with a loaf of bread (that she stole from her mother's kitchen) and left it by his door. She ran away again back to her house and came back the next day to see the loaf of bread in the person's kitchen. She did this every couple weeks, making it a habit of bringing food to the house and seeing if the food was taken. She never left a note on the food, secretly fearing that the person might come after her and kidnap her and do horrible things to her. She kept this habit up, never telling her mother what she was up to. However, her streak of not being seen by the person living in the house was about to be broken._

_On a clear summer night, Akahana sneaked up to the house with a bag of freshly picked grapes. She had gone grape-picking earlier that day with her mother and the two of them had picked a lot of grapes. Akahana had gotten some into a paper bag without her mom knowing and snuck out late at night to go to the Uchiha estate to give them to the person living there. She had just placed the bag down and was just about to run off when the door slid open behind her. She stopped suddenly and looked behind her, her olive green eyes filled with fright. A black-haired male was standing in the doorway in a dark blue sleep kimono, rubbing his eyes. Akahana didn't move from her spot; she was paralyzed where she was. The man looked down at her and then down at the bag full of grapes. A very small smile curled up onto his lips and he spoke in a deep voice,_

"_So, you're the person that's been bringing me food all this time. I kept thinking Naruto was being extra nice to me." Akahana could only nod numbly. The man stifled a laugh, thinking that the girl being frozen with fright was somewhat hilarious._

"_Do you know who I am, child?" She shook her head meekly, unable to actually speak. She was afraid, actually afraid, something that she didn't feel that often. The man sighed softly and spoke again,_

"_My name is Sasuke Uchiha." Akahana recognized the name instantly and began to think back to the time when her mother talked to her about the man named Sasuke. She turned around to face him fully and looked him in the eyes. She noticed how dark his eyes were, and not just of color. His eyes seemed to be devoid of emotion. It drew her in and wanted to make her run away at the same time. Despite the fear within her, she managed to speak in her soft voice,_

"_...I...I've heard of you before."_

"_A lot of people have heard of me and what I have done."_

"_I've never seen you around the village."_

"_That's because I'm not allowed to."_

"_Why not?"_

"_Because the Hokage ordered it so. And besides, I don't really want to come into contact with the other villagers." Akahana thought about this for a moment, sorting through the details. She knew, from her mother, that she wasn't allowed to go near him because he was evil. She didn't know anything else about him other than what her mother told her. She wanted to ask so many questions, to want to get to know him, but she resisted asking. Instead, she nodded once, which seemed to satisfy the man. He turned around and was just about to walk back into the house when Akahana asked,_

"_Do you mind if I keep doing what I'm doing?" Sasuke stopped dead. He turned back around and saw her eyes, nearly pleading. _It's almost as if she's begging for her life._ However, that wasn't the case this time. He sighed and leaned against the doorframe._

"_Do your parents know you're doing this?" He asked._

"_...No. I sneak out when my mother's asleep." This surprised him a bit. A young girl, who was no older than seven or eight years old, was sneaking out of her own house when her mother went to bed just to come over to his house and give him extra food. He had to admit, he was slightly impressed. He smiled a little bit and knelt down to be eye-level with her. He placed a hand on top of her head and ruffled her hair._

"_Alright, I'll make a deal with you. As long as you can keep your mother from finding out what you're doing, you can keep on doing this. However, if she finds out that you're bringing me things, you tell me so I know and the deal's off. Agreed?" Akahana nodded, a smile finally coming onto her face. He took his hand off of her head and stood back up, leaning against the doorway again._

"_Now you better run off home before your mother worries about you." _

"_Right!" Akahana turned back around and ran off. He sighed in relief. He could finally go to bed. But...wait a minute...he forgot to ask her for her name! He ran out of his house and skidded to a stop in the pathway. He couldn't see her._ Apparently, she runs and disappears quickly. _He sighed and walked back into the house, shutting the door behind him. He went upstairs to his room after passing by the hallway that led into the kitchen. He went up to his bed and immediately collapsed onto the bed face first. He pulled the covers out from underneath him and placed them on himself. For some reason, he didn't even feel sleepy, and sometimes it took him a long time to fall asleep. He groaned into his pillow._ Why...?_ It was going to be a long night for him._

* * *

Akahana sat on the windowsill, staring up at the night sky from her house. She breathed in deeply and smiled as she exhaled. She always loved the nighttime for a few reasons. She loved how the stars twinkled against the midnight blue sky. She loved how the world was enveloped by a blanket of darkness that told people that they could rest then. She also loved the moon, especially when it was full. When it was full, it shone brightly, but not as bright as the sun, and it didn't hurt when you looked up at it. The moon had its own beauty to it that would capture anyone's attention and place them in serenity. She smiled a bit more and turned her head so she was looking inside of her darkened room.

One of her teammates, Zero, was sitting on her twin-sized bed, playing with bits of skin on his fingers. She knew that he had a lot of trouble at home with his parents and often snuck out of his house at night so he wouldn't have to face them the next morning when he got out of bed. She had offered for him to stay at her house whenever he wanted to. Her mother had gotten used to him being over and loved him, especially when he became shy and blushed deeply as he slowly backed away. Akahana had somehow convinced him to not be afraid of her mother and eventually, he stopped backing away from her. He still wasn't that much of a talker, though.

Zero was always nice and respectful to people, even if they were his enemies. He would also try to get out of situations that he didn't want to be in by talking his way out. It was a rarity that he would have to fight his way out of it. Akahana and her other teammate Akihiko had seen this play out quite a few times back when they were in the ninja academy. It was always a shocker to her how Zero could talk his way out of something. She had never been able to do that. She envied him in a way, but never let it show. She didn't want to hurt him more than he already was.

She knew that she must've been staring at him for some time, because Zero was now looking at her. She couldn't see his eyes, since they were hidden by his dark green bangs. He had told her that his eyes were blue, and that made her even more curious. She even went to the point where she tried to peek under his bangs while he was sleeping. That plan had failed because he had woken up. She never tried it again.

A sigh escaped her lips, making Zero tip his head to one side slightly.

"What's wrong?" He asked in his soft voice. His voice had always been soft and did not have that touch of 'man' in it. It was soft, like velvet. Akahana had always liked how his voice sounded whenever she heard it. It was calming, in a way.

"Nothing, really. I was just thinking of the past, that's all." She replied.

"Oh." Was all Zero said before the room was enveloped in silence again. Akahana turned her head back so she was staring at the stars once again while Zero went back to picking pieces of dead skin off of his fingers.

* * *

Akihiko studied the painting in front of him critically. He was trying to figure out what else he should add to it to make it more complete. He held the thin brush in one hand while the other was holding a circular wooden tray that held small amounts of paint in assorted colors. His eyes searched the painting carefully. The painting was that of a sunset on the beach with two silhouettes walking across the sand by the water. He had already completed the sky with its different shades of purple and pink. The sun was also finished (and it didn't take all that long, since only a third of it was showing), and the water was finished as well, along with the silhouettes. What was missing from the piece? He pondered the thought, closing his eyes and focusing on the problem at hand.

A figure jumped into his room effortlessly, since the bedroom window was wide open to let fresh air in. They noticed Akihiko behind the canvas and the wooden stand that it was perched on, thinking about something. They walked over to where Akihiko was and studied the painting. A smile curled up onto their pale lips as they looked the piece of artwork over.

"Hmmm...your piece looks fantastic, Akihiko-kun." The boy nearly jumped off of his stool when the voice spoke to them, causing him to drop the brush onto the wooden floor. His eyes flashed open and his head turned to see who it was. Akihiko breathed a sigh of relief and placed his free hand over his heart.

"Ah, sensei, you scared me for a second." The figure beside him laughed a bit at this. They calmed down and stared at Akihiko with their deep red eyes.

"You should know your own sensei by now, Akihiko-kun." The sensei placed a hand on Akihiko's head and ruffled his shaggy red hair some. Akihiko didn't exactly like this, but he withheld it. He just didn't have the guts to defy his sensei. The sensei took his hand off of Akihiko's head and it fell immediately to his side. The red-haired boy looked up at his teacher and asked,

"Williams-sensei, why are you here? You're usually in bed by this time." The figure was surprised at this, their eyebrows up. They then tried to come up with an answer, but all that came out were pieces of words. Finally, after about a minute of stuttering, they gave up and sighed in defeat.

"I'll admit, I couldn't sleep because of my neighbor."

"Your neighbor, George?"

"I told you not to call me that."

"Sorry, sorry. Anyway, what about your neighbor, sensei?"

"They're just making a ton of noise, that's all. Your house seems nice and quiet, and you were up painting again. You're not going to do this when the Chunin Exams begin, now are you?"

"Not painting, but drawing."

"Ah, you're so predictable." George replied. Akihiko smiled a bit at this before turning back to his painting. He studied it again and George noticed this after a few seconds. He too began to look at the painting, studying its content once again. He knew that Akihiko would study his own paintings and try to add things that sometimes weren't really necessary. However, George never had the heart to tell him. _He'll figure it out on his own eventually. _He stopped looking and stood up so he was upright again, since he had been leaning over to study the painting more thoroughly. He lifted one of his hands until it was parallel with the floor and looked at the golden wristwatch. _Crap! It's 1:26! I've gotta go! _

"L-look, Akihiko-kun, I would love to stay, but I have a meeting tomorrow with the Hokage regarding the Chunin Exams, and I can't be late."

"Okay. See you tomorrow, sensei."

"Good night. And tell Akahana-chan and Zero-kun to meet me at the dango shop tomorrow at high noon sharp. Got it?"

"Got it."

"Alright. I'll see you then." And with that, George disappeared into thin air. Akihiko looked over the painting one more time before deciding that he just couldn't come up with anything after about a couple minutes. He picked the brush up off of the floor and noticed a purple paint stain on his floor.

"I'll deal with that in the morning." He placed the brush in a water cup that had been sitting on a small table next to the painting and placed the wooden paint tray on it as well. He stood up from his stool and maneuvered around the canvas and stand and went over to his bed. He pulled the cyan-colored sheets to the side so he could get in. Once he was in, he pulled the sheets over himself and closed his eyes. _Another day gone, and another will come. _The thought ran through his head as he closed his eyes and soon fell into a light sleep.

* * *

A ninja fell out of a tree and down into a small clearing, landing with a solid _thump! _Blood seeped from the fallen ninja's chest quickly. Three shadowy figures then jumped down from the trees and landed next to the bloodied man, each of them in a crouch. All of them stared at the newly-made corpse with emotionless eyes. One of them spoke in a female voice,

"Aaawww...I wanted to play with him a little more."

"Stop your whining." A deep male voice replied back. The person that just spoke now stepped into the moonlight, revealing a pale-skinned boy with medium-length, shaggy black hair. His onyx eyes had bags underneath them from not sleeping for two days. They searched around, looking for any more possible intruders. A girl then stepped out into the moonlight and looked at the male.

"Haruo-chan, what'cha doing?" The girl asked. The male turned to her, an annoyed look on his face. A sigh escaped him and he pinched his nose in slight frustration.

"First off, Ayane, _don't _call me Haruo-_chan. _Second, I'm looking for any other intruders. Got any other questions?"

"...No..." Ayane pouted and walked back into the darkness. She walked up to the third and final person, a male that was sitting alone by a tree, and knelt down beside him, gently touching his shoulder. He turned his head and stared at the girl calmly with his visible onyx eye. His left eye was covered with black bangs that hung to about halfway down his face. He didn't say a word, but instead placed a hand on top of Ayane's. The two stayed like this for a bit while Haruo searched the forest for more enemy ninja.

The sun was beginning to come up, and Haruo still wasn't back. Ayane had finally given up on trying to talk to her other brother, Lee, so she sulked away and slept in a tree nearby. Lee was sitting in the middle of the small clearing, his eyes closed. A lone bird sat upon his left shoulder and watched him quietly, tipping its head from side to side every now and then. He didn't seem to notice the bird; he was meditating. It helped him get through stressful situations. He knew that his siblings (Haruo and Ayane) knew about this little habit and just left him alone unless they needed to go on a mission or just out on an outing. Lee wasn't exactly the most chatty or social of all people. He had never been, preferring to stay in a corner and watch his sister and brother enjoy themselves, and his brother wasn't exactly the most sociable of people, either.

Lee opened his eyes and turned his head, noticing the bird for the first time. He smiled softly and tipped his own head to the side, mimicking the bird's movements. The bird followed his movements, tipping its head to the side.

"Well, isn't this nice." Lee whispered to the bird. It didn't respond, but instead tipped its head back up. He turned his head away and lifted one of his hands up, extending one of his fingers. The bird noticed this and flapped its wings, lifting itself off of his shoulder. It landed on the extended finger and chirped at him. He laughed to himself quietly and lifted his hand higher into the air, causing the bird to fly away. He watched it as it flew away into the tops of the trees and beyond. _I sometimes wish that I was a bird. Then I could fly away from anything and just be free, having the sky be my limit. _He stood up slowly, straightening out his black shirt and red hooded sweater and his jet black pants so they wouldn't have wrinkles. Sometimes Ayane flipped out on him just because his clothes looked as if they had been taken out of the dryer an hour after they had finished being dried. He had dealt with it in his own way, like he always had.

He immediately found Ayane's tree and walked over to it, placing one of his feet on the tree's trunk. He lifted his other foot and put it in front of the first. He kept doing this and soon, he was walking on the trunk of the tree. He went up a fair distance before seeing his sister, sleeping in a sitting position on a thick branch near the top of the tree. He stopped a foot away from her and watched her as her chest puffed up and then deflated in a rhythmic motion. He smiled slightly at this. _At least she's still alive. _He thought as he continued to watch over her.

* * *

"I swear, sometimes I think she's going to get herself killed, doing that." A silver-haired woman said in annoyance. Haruo sat next to her, letting his legs dangle off of the branch. He nodded once in agreement. The two of them were in a tree not too far from where Lee and Ayane were located. Haruo turned his head to look at the woman, an emotionless expression on his face.

"Well, she _is _my sister, after all. Even I can't tell her not to do that. She'll just do it."

"She's going to get herself killed in this world if she keeps doing that. She should know better by now."

"However, Amaterasu-sensei, there's a problem with that."

"What?"

"She knows, but still does it, regardless of what anyone else says." Amaterasu sighed in annoyance. Haruo couldn't exactly blame his teacher for doing so. Ayane would sometimes even ignore their sensei and do whatever the hell she wanted to do. She wasn't exactly the brightest bulb in the box. _And I'm still surprised that she hasn't wound up in a hospital more than she has, and that's happened only twice. _He noticed that Amaterasu was pinching the bridge of her nose. He laid a hand upon her shoulder gently, something that was a rarity for him. She flinched somewhat and turned to stare at him. She then relaxed and averted her eyes away.

"Don't worry, sensei. Lee's keeping an eye on her. He won't let her escape _that _easily."

"I sure hope so. I sure hope so." Amaterasu said, fatigue clearly in her voice. Haruo removed his hand and set it back in his lap. If he knew Lee as well as he think he did, he wouldn't let Ayane escape so easily. He knew of her habits as well as he himself did. A devilish smile came onto his face and Haruo made sure he hid it from his sensei. He wouldn't want his sensei becoming suspicious of him, now would he...?

* * *

So, that's the first chapter. Wow, I thought I'd never finish this. It took me a while, but I completed it.

Please review and be on the lookout for the next chapter. ^^


	2. Meet the Squads-Part 2

**Chapter 2: Meet the Squads- Part 2**

A lone cabin sat deep within the forest, the only thing indicating that people had actually gone into the forest. The cabin itself had seen better days; the roof was caving in, the wooden walls were weathered from years of being beaten and abused by all kinds of weather and had many scratches in the wood, the windows had cracks and plenty of dirt to show that no one had bothered taking the time to clean or replace them, and the door had a huge crack in it, almost as if someone was trying to split it into two. Inside was a similar story; the rooms were bathed in natural light or darkness, depending on what time of day it was, there were scratch marks on the walls, the few paintings that were in there were either tilted or had fallen off the wall and damaged, the beds in the bedrooms were missing their sheets, and there was pieces of trash everywhere on the floor. This would be the ideal place to have a secret meeting, right? Hardly any of your enemies would dare to enter such a cabin and not walk out within the first couple minutes. And there was a squad of ninjas heading there at that moment.

A group of four, consisting of three males and one female, were heading in the direction of the old, ruined cabin. The leader of this squad, known as Josh Eisenberg, was leading his team from the front in case any enemies had the guts to attack them head-on. Then again, he knew that enemies would try to attack them from other sides, as well. That's why he had his team with him. Karin, the only girl in the group, could knock someone to their feet in one single punch because of her strength (but her strength couldn't exactly compare with Tsunade's). Ray, the killer of the squad, could kill someone so swiftly; they wouldn't even know they were dead until their souls were sent to either heaven or hell. And Takashi, the most sane one in the group (according to Josh), could kill someone silently and not alert anyone else to him. Josh trusted his students because of their abilities and would have them defend him any day, but that didn't mean that he did not have his moments where he absolutely detested them.

The squad moved swiftly through the trees, using their speed and the cover of the mix of branches and leaves to their advantage, just like any other ninja. Josh glanced behind him and saw his students still with him, despite the argument that they had had last night. _And I was thinking either Karin would be the first to walk off or kill me with one punch to my sternum, Ray throwing knives at my chest or head, or Takashi using the silent kill technique on me. Well, it looks like we're sticking it out for just a bit longer. _He turned back so he was focusing on what was in front of him again. A little smile appeared on his face at the thought, although he made sure his students didn't know of this.

They made it to the cabin without so much as a random merchant or lost villager getting in their way and jumped down from the trees, bending their knees and crouching as they hit the ground feet-first. They all stood up and, since no one was complaining of a broken bone, Josh decided to go forth to the cabin. He began walking toward it and soon, he heard three sets of feet hitting the ground and knew his students were following him. He got to the door first and noticed the large crack in the deep green-colored door. He placed one hand on the rusting doorknob and turned it, pushing it in the process. He stepped inside and some part of him began to regret coming here. _Of all the places to leave such a mess, it had to be here? Ah, crap... _He lifted one hand and motioned for the three people behind him to come in. They did so, and Josh heard Karin speak first,

"Filthy people, they must've been. They didn't even bother to clean up the damn place." Josh could hear the annoyance in her voice and did not blame her for what she was feeling. Regardless of this, he said calmly,

"Relax, Karin. This is the kind of place that we need to have our meeting."

"Why do we have to be here, sensei? I mean, couldn't have we had it back in Konoha?" Takashi spoke for the first time since the argument the night before.

"That would be too obvious, Takashi." Josh replied somewhat slyly. Takashi noticed it in his voice, but said nothing. He had heard it too many times from his sensei and eventually just stopped caring for it. He looked over to Ray, who was by one of the two windows that faced the front, staring out of the dirty, cracked glass. He didn't exactly understand what he would find doing so, but didn't bother to ask. The last time that he had done something like that, it was a _huge _mistake. Ray had almost killed him by nearly stabbing his throat, but luckily, Josh had been there and grabbed Ray's wrist, squeezing it until the latter dropped the knife. He never made_ that_ mistake again.

Takashi averted his eyes from Ray and onto Karin. He never quite understood why she hated him and Ray so much. He had been polite and respectful to her, but still, he was hated by her. _Was it because of her losing the race? _He remembered the race quite well. He actually found some of the parts humorous, while the other parts were just hurtful or unexpected to him.

* * *

_It was about a year ago, the first time the three of them had actually met each other. Ray was...well, Ray (there was no other way to describe him, according to Takashi), and Karin had a bit more spunk than she did now. Josh was not there yet, so the three of them decided to have a race. Whoever could run around the exterior of the village (without using ninja speed!) three times and climb to the top of the wall by the front gate of the village would be declared the leader of the squad (when the sensei wasn't around). Ray had somehow agreed to it, being the person that he was. Karin accepted the challenge without a single doubt, saying that she would be the one that was victorious. Takashi still swore that was one of the only times he actually saw Ray show some emotion on his face._

_The three of them met outside the gate. Takashi had given the signal, and soon, the three of them were running. Takashi was taking his time, believing that the other two would wear themselves out and he would be the one climbing the wall first and being the winner. He saw Ray just ahead of him, his black trench coat streaming behind him. Takashi caught himself wondering how in the world he could wear that, even in the midst of summer, of all times. He couldn't see Karin, since she had sped off when he gave the signal to start running, so he figured that she was almost done with her first lap. He stifled a laugh, thinking of a tired Karin, lying on the ground panting like a dog while he and Ray competed against one another to be the leader of the squad. That would've been hilarious for him, if it actually happened._

_It was the third and final lap. The three teens were starting to feel the fatigue in their systems. Takashi figured that was why ninjas went so darn fast; so they wouldn't feel the fatigue in their bones until after they were done! He was pulled out of the trance when two ninja that he didn't know came up behind them. Karin stopped and faced them, forgetting the race altogether. She challenged the two ninja (despite being a genin) and began to fight them. Takashi considered helping Karin, but Ray stopped him and told him that it was useless trying to stop that brute of a girl and just let her fight them off. He agreed with him when he noticed the fight becoming more intense. The two boys ran off, racing each other._

_The two boys reached the wall right beside the gate and summoned chakra to their feet. They stepped onto the wall and then they were running up the wall. Takashi looked over and saw that Ray was somehow keeping up with him. _Damn! How is he doing that? T_akashi didn't have time to worry about that; he was falling behind. He pushed harder on the wall with the muscles in his legs and caught up to Ray, who looked at him with mild surprise. He turned away and focused on the wall ahead of him. Takashi bit off a verbal curse; it probably wouldn't have done him any good._

_The two reached the top of the wall at the same time and both of them were panting, sweat dripping from their chins. Takashi looked up and noticed that Ray was wiping the droplets of sweat from his forehead (and that was also one of the only times he saw emotion on Ray's face). He sighed and stood up again, feeling the fatigue in his muscles. He was first to break the silence,_

"_You're good, man. No wonder you were feared back in the academy." Ray actually laughed some at this comment, shocking Takashi (and it still shocked him to this day whenever he thought about it). He then heard Ray speak,_

"_You're good, too."_

"_Ah, wow, thanks man. No one's ever said that to me before."_

"_Don't expect it from me again."_

"_I'm not."_

"_Good." Silence filled the space in between them again. Ray had already stood back up, his posture showing that he could carry himself by himself. Takashi caught himself wondering how Ray had managed to become part of their squad, despite who he was (and he was_ one scary dude_)_. By the way, where's Karin?_ He suddenly remembered and slapped himself in the face, causing Ray to look over at him and ask without any emotion in his voice,_

"_What's wrong now?"_

"_We forgot about Karin!"_

"_Ah, hush up. She'll find us."_

"_No kidding I'll find you!" A female voice yelled. Takashi tilted his head up and Ray turned his own to see Karin several feet in the air above them. Takashi took a few steps backwards to make room for Karin. She landed in between the two boys and Takashi didn't even need to look into her eyes to know that she was fuming. He shoved his hands into his pockets and averted his eye away from her. Ray was staring at the back of her head, as if he was trying to bore holes into it. Karin broke the silence with an exclamation,_

"_You morons left me down there to fight off those jerks!"_

"_Well, that's your fault for doing so." Ray said. She whipped around to face him and glared._

"_You could've helped me!"_

"_You seemed to have the thing under control. Why did you need our help when you had it covered?"_

"_It would've made things easier for me if you two were actually there helping me!"_

"_Regardless of that, you lost the race." It was now Takashi who was speaking. She turned around swiftly to meet his gaze and poked harshly at his chest, right where his heart was._

"_Because you didn't help me!"_

"No. _It was because of you forgetting about the race. That's your own fault, and you know it." Ray smiled slightly at this. _I like this kid. He's got guts. _Karin was stunned. She was trying to come up with something to say to him. He saw her lips trembling and her eyebrows twitching like crazy. He thought he had somehow hurt her feelings with his words. He was about to apologize when she whispered angrily,_

"_Who won, then?"_

"_Ray did." Takashi answered. Karin clenched her fists, her whole body shaking with anger. He backed up a bit to somehow avoid being screamed at. However, even he should've known that a boy never escaped a girl's wrath once she was locked onto him._

"_I HATE YOU BOTH!" She screamed furiously and swung at Takashi, catching him in the chest. The wind was knocked out of him and he stumbled backward. He managed to catch himself before he fell off of the wall. He then saw her running toward him and he whipped around, running away from her while she chased him, yelling to him that he should face her like a man and not run away like a coward. Ray had had enough of the whole thing and just walked off, not even bothering to stop them from the argument they had gotten themselves into._

* * *

Takashi broke himself from the trance and looked at Josh, who had lit a cigarette and was taking a drag from it. He had hardly ever seen his sensei smoke in front of them, and he had already known that the man smoked. He shoved his hands into his pockets and looked down at the floor. Josh glanced around the room, taking note of his students. He sighed and cleared a space for himself on the couch before sitting down. Karin had found a stool and was sitting on it. Ray remained standing near the window, and Takashi stood where he was as well. Josh cleared his throat and began to speak,

"As you know, I've brought all three of you here for a specific reason."

"What is it?" Karin asked, the annoyance still present in her voice.

"Let me get to that, Karin." Josh said in a composed manner. Ray glanced over at Karin and thought only one thing; _Sometimes I wish she'd drop dead. Life would be much easier to handle without her bitching. _He turned his eyes back toward Josh, waiting for him to speak. Fortunately, he didn't have to wait long before Josh spoke again,

"It's about the Chunin Exams."

"What about them?" Takashi asked, curious. He had heard of the Chunin Exams from the Jounin in the village. It sounded interesting to him, but what did he know? They could've been lying to him about it, trying to cover up the truth.

"I need to speak with the Hokage to determine whether or not you're ready to take part in the exams. And I know you all feel ready to take part in it, but I want you to ask yourselves one thing and actually think about it; do you _honestly _feel that you are ready to go into the exams and come out not a genin, but a chunin." Josh spoke in a serious voice. Silence filled the room. Josh took a peek around and saw that they were actually taking this seriously and thinking about it. Karin looked like a philosopher with her pose; one hand under her chin and her eyes staring forward into the distance. Ray had closed his eyes to think about the question without having to look at anyone else. Takashi was looking at the floor, his foot tracing invisible patterns into the wood. Josh took another drag at his cigarette and breathed out the smoke a few moments later.

Five minutes had passed and still no answer from anyone. Josh had expected that, really. He knew his students well enough to know that they would take something very seriously when the circumstances told them to. He took in a deep breath and broke the silence,

"Have you had enough time to think about this?" The three teens turned to face him, coming out of their thoughts.

"Hell yeah, I'm ready!" Karin said while placing a fist into an imaginary opponent.

"It should be easy enough to handle, and it would be nice to test my skills against someone else." Ray said in his apathetic voice.

"Yeah, I guess so." Takashi whispered.

"You _guess _so?" Josh eyed him suspiciously as he asked this.

"Yeah. I've heard some things about it from Jounin in the village, and it seems pretty interesting enough. But I would have to find out for myself if I have what it takes to be in the exams."

"Well said, Takashi-kun." Josh smiled and leaned back on the couch. Karin smiled a bit herself at this; at least her teammates were up to the challenge. Ray went back to staring out the window.

"Alright, I'll talk to the Hokage later today about this." Josh said. Karin and Takashi nodded once in unison, making Josh smile. _It's going to be a breeze, getting them into the exams._

* * *

Yumi Matsumoto, the leader of a squad, was sitting at the base of a tree, playing her guitar softly. All three of her students were still asleep. She hummed a bit to herself as the music took control of her. She liked playing her guitar, especially when she was stressed; it was easy for her to express her feelings through music. She hummed a bit louder, but not too loud to wake her students up. That would've been so unlike her. The song that she was playing was completely made up and she was just going with it, like she always had done in the past.

She stopped strumming the strings after a little while and placed the instrument carefully back into its case. She closed the case and snapped it shut. She stood up and straightened out her clothes, rubbing any leaves and small pieces of sticks off of her. She looked over to her students and smiled. It was nice to see them look so peaceful, having good dreams while they slept. She knelt down and picked up her guitar case by the single handle it had before standing back up again. She took the long stick that she had found the night before off of the tree trunk and, holding it with one hand in a tight grip, wrote out a message in the dirt. Once she was done, she placed the stick back in its spot, jumped away into the trees, and sped away, wanting to get to the Hokage's office first. It was her thing, really, to be on time to events and being the first one there. She never knew exactly why she was obsessed with it; she figured that it came from her mother's side of the family (and a lot of the family members on that side had the same habit, too).

Rose was first to awaken, and it had only been five minutes since Yumi had left. She yawned, stretching her muscles out like a cat. She got up into a sitting position and looked at her teammates. Yuuta was lying on his side away from her, curled up into a ball. Dante was on his back, as if he had fallen asleep staring at the stars. She stood up and stepped over Dante so she wouldn't walk on him accidently. She surveyed the area with her dark green eyes and noticed that Yumi's guitar case was gone. _Where could she have gone? _She walked slowly, looking for a sign of her beloved sensei. She looked down and saw the note in the dirt. She stopped and knelt down beside it so she could read it better. It read this;

_To Rose, Yuuta, and Dante,_

_I've gone on ahead to meet with the Hokage regarding the Chunin Exams. You will have to make it back to the village on your own. Sorry for not telling you last night about it, but I didn't wish to ruin your fun. Hope you guys make it back safely._

_-Yumi Matsumoto_

Rose smiled and stifled a laugh. Her sensei always used her full name whenever she left a note for them, no matter how many times they had told her that she didn't need to do such a thing for them. She stood back up and walked over to the two males. She knelt beside Dante and placed a hand on his shoulder, shaking him.

"Dante...Dante! Wake up! We need to get back to the village. Sensei's gonna meet us there."

"What?" Dante said in a slightly hoarse voice, having just been awoken from his pleasant dreams. He sat up slowly, eventually making Rose remove her hand from his shoulder. He rubbed his eyes and yawned loudly. He looked over at Rose and smiled.

"How did you sleep last night?"

"Alright, I guess. No nightmares woke me up."

"That's good, that's good." Dante agreed. Rose placed her hands in her lap, not knowing what else to do with them. Dante didn't notice this detail and turned his head to look at Yuuta, who seemed to be shifting from one side to the other.

"Wake up, sleepyhead! We've gotta get back to the village pronto! Yumi-sensei's meeting us there!" Dante called out.

"Yeah, yeah, quit your jabbering. I'm up." Yuuta's soft voice came back. The male sat up and rubbed one of his eyes while looking at his two teammates. He saw Rose and averted his eyes away, blushing slightly. Dante found this funny and started laughing. Yuuta noticed this and turned his head to glare at the white-haired male.

"Stop laughing, Dante!"

"But I can't help it, especially when you blush like that!"

"Shut up!"

"Now, now, boys. Let's be civilized about this, alright?" Yuuta nodded and got up from the ground. Dante managed to stop laughing a few minutes later and stood up, along with Rose. She walked over to the note and smudged it with her foot so no one else that came around these parts would be able to track them. She turned to her teammates and nodded.

"Let's go!"

"Right!" The males said in unison. The three of them jumped into the trees and leapt through the treetops effortlessly. Rose was in front, with Yuuta to her right and Dante to her left. She was glad to have them as teammates. No matter where she had went on her many walks (since she liked taking them), they had always found her and brought her back with them to wherever they went safely. As time had went on, she had learned to place her trust in them, and it had been easier than she had originally thought. Some part of her knew that she would place her life in their hands and expect them to protect her with all they had, no matter what came their way. They had learned teamwork over the course of the previous year and it had paid off thus far.

Rose was broken from her thoughts when Dante suddenly spoke,

"Did sensei say anything else in that note she left? Like where she wanted us to meet?"

"Well, no, she didn't. But I'm expecting that she wants us to meet up with her at the regular place."

"At the tea shop?" Yuuta now asked.

"I guess so."

"Makes sense to me. Yumi-sensei is _crazy _about her tea." Dante said. The three of them began laughing at this. They knew that Yumi drank tea every single day and never missing out on an opportunity to go to the tea shop to drink her favorite teas.

They settled down a couple minutes later, having had a good laugh at the little fact. They stared ahead of them, each of them thinking about what they do when they got back to the Hidden Leaf Village. Rose was thinking about taking a nice little walk around the village (even though she had done so many times back in the past) while munching on an apple or some other kind of fruit. Dante was thinking about running through the streets (considering all the energy he has), possibly humming or singing to himself as he sped through the streets. Yuuta was thinking about sitting up in his room and enjoying a nice, refreshing drink and watching some TV (and yes, he owns a TV!). All three of them knew one thing as these scenarios and wishes ran through their heads; nothing would be the same once the Chunin Exams started.

"I can't wait! It's gonna be so exciting, these exams!" Dante exclaimed.

"Calm down there, Jethro. No need to rush these things." Yuuta said calmly.

"What's wrong with thinking about it? It's just something...well, new for us to try. It's not every day that you get to participate in these things, you know, Yuuta-san."

"I know, I know. Just don't jump to conclusions so quickly. We don't know what to expect from these exams."

"Relax, Yuuta-kun. Yumi-sensei will fill us in on it. She's been through the Chunin Exams before, hasn't she? She could give us a tutorial on it to help ease our anxiety a little." Rose said.

"If you say so." Yuuta replied. The three of them fell silent. Yuuta couldn't help but worry about it. It was just in his nature, no matter how calm and composed he seemed. Some part of him deep inside did not have a good feeling about this...

* * *

Second chapter completed! I've introduced all four squads that are going to have a major part in the Chunin Exams (since the students will be participating in them). The next chapter will be coming up soon. Please review and tell me what you think of the story so far!


	3. The Hokage's Meeting

**Chapter 3: The Hokage's Meeting**

The sun was making its way up into the sky slowly, waking up the sleepy villagers, and telling them to get up and get ready for the day. The sky was turning lighter and lighter shades of blue because of the sun's light reflecting through it, making the darkness retreat for another day. The streets were now becoming busier because of people coming onto them, going along with their regular routines and making their way around. Ninjas that had their day off were out with their families or just staying in their houses, wanting to relax, even if it was only for a day. Other ninjas were making their way to the Hokage's office, receiving their missions and setting out to complete them.

The Hokage had one of the hardest jobs in the Hidden Leaf Village. He had to hand out missions to other ninjas, make sure that no one was trying to attack the village, and read through piles and piles of paperwork before signing off on them. He had to admit, the paperwork was the toughest job that he had to do. Every day, there would be piles of it that he would have to file through. It was a pain in the ass to him, but he _did _want to become Hokage of Konoha, so he had to expect this from the job. Tsunade was still helping him with some things, but other than that, he was pretty much on his own.

Naruto let a sigh escape his lips as he leaned back in his chair. He stared at the piles of paperwork around his office and pinched the bridge of his nose. _Damn, this is a lot of paperwork to do. I'm starting to wish that I hadn't given Sakura that day off that she wanted. _One of his old friends and the other member of Squad 7, Sakura Haruno, was one of his assistants with the job. She would hand him pieces of paper one after the other so the work went a bit faster. She would even read some of the papers and explain to him (in simple terms) what was being explained on paper. His other assistant, Angel from the Hataina clan, was out sick with pneumonia, so he was on his own for today. And to top it all off, he had to meet with George Williams, Amaterasu, Josh Eisenberg, and Yumi Matsumoto to discuss the Chunin Exams. _It seems I picked a bad time for the Chunin Exams to be held. Ah, well. That's my fault. I've gotta deal with it. _He turned around in the chair and stared out the wall window, its clear glass hiding no details from him.

It always calmed him down during the day to see the village that he had spent his whole life in go on through its paces without so much as a hindrance. The people were doing their business, like they always did. The wind blew through the trees normally and not bringing a bad omen with it. He smiled slightly at the scene. He was lucky to be Hokage. He honestly didn't know what he would do without his friends. They made it possible for him to become the Hokage in the first place. He felt like one of the luckiest guys in the world (minus the paperwork, obviously).

He turned back around and picked up the single sheet of paper on the desk. He began to read through it carefully, trying to pick out the most important details from it. It took him a couple minutes for him to read through it and he placed it back on the desk, taking out a pen. He clicked the top of it and set the tip down on the paper, where it said to sign off. He signed his name and put the paper to the side. He grabbed another one and repeated the process of reading, signing, and placing it to the side.

He had been doing so for a while when he heard a knock on the other side of the door. _Who could be bugging me at this hour? _He put the pen down and leaned forward in the chair, his hands folded together on the desk.

"Who is it?" He called out.

"It's me, sir. We're supposed to talk about the Chunin Exams." George's voice came through the door.

"Come in." The door opened and the black-haired male stepped into the room. George shut the door behind him and walked further into the room. He stopped when he was about two feet away from the desk and bowed slightly.

"I see you're healthy and fit, just as always, Naruto-sama." George commented.

"When am I not?" Naruto replied back with a smile. George lifted his head and surveyed the room. _Always with the paperwork, huh? It's gotta be a pain in the neck, if you ask me. _Naruto noticed him doing this, but didn't bother to stop him. It was uncommon for George to come by if it wasn't for a mission. He leaned back in his chair once again and sighed softly. The black-haired male saw this and tried to come up with something to say, but nothing came out. He gave up after several moments and looked down at the floor.

"So, we're waiting for three more people, right?" Naruto asked after a while. George was broken from his little trance and lifted his head to look at the Uzumaki.

"Y-yes." He managed to stutter out. Naruto simply nodded and George went back to staring at the floor, the only thing that was keeping him inside.

* * *

Yumi ran through the front gate into the village with incredible speed. She was doing this because she feared that she was going to be late for the meeting. _And I have to drop off my guitar case at my house, too! Agh! What a pain this is! _She sped through the streets, somehow avoiding hitting people with her body or the instrument case in her hand. No one seemed to give her much attention because of her speed, which she liked. The less of a ruckus was caused, the better, she always said.

She skidded to a stop in front of a royal blue, two-story apartment that was in the middle of two three-story apartments. She walked up to the front door, a pristine white coating of paint on its wooden surface, and pulled out a dirty golden key from her pocket. She placed it in the lock and turned it to the right, unlocking the door. She took it out and turned the knob, pushing the door open. She walked into the kitchen and shut the door behind her. Her eyes glanced over to the right and saw the stairs that led up to the second floor of the apartment. She turned toward them and climbed them, making sure that her guitar case didn't bump into the wall when she made the smooth turn on the stairs.

She reached a doorway and walked through it, walking into her bedroom. There was a medium-sized window off to her right that faced the street, a bureau right next to the doorway, her full-sized bed in the middle of the large, spacious room, and a large mirror that was across the room from the window. She walked up to the bed and lifted the guitar case, placing it on the bed. She let it drop onto its side and smiled before turning swiftly on her heels and making her way back downstairs. She went to the front door, not even bothering to grab a quick bite to eat (since she was in the kitchen). She opened the door and stepped through it. After she closed it, she made sure to lock it before shoving the key back into her pocket and making her way down the street at a fast, hurried pace.

She made it to the Hokage's tower several minutes later and walked into the building after getting clearance from the two ANBU ninja stationed there. She walked through the long hallway, admiring the place. She had been here plenty of times in the past, but she just couldn't get over how beautiful the place was. She walked up a set of stairs and made her way down another hallway before stopping at a certain door. There was nothing special about the door itself, but she knew that, beyond the door, was where the Hokage stayed. She knocked on the door twice and stood there, waiting somewhat impatiently for an answer. She was tapping her foot on the carpeted floor, unable to help herself.

"Who is it?" She heard the Hokage's voice come through.

"It's Yumi Matsumoto, sir. I'm here in regards to the Chunin Exams."

"Come in." He said. She opened the door and stepped inside. She was surprised by the amount of paperwork in the room. _Man, will he _ever _get a break from all this paperwork? I fear it's going to drown him someday. _She shut the door behind her and took a more detailed look around the room. Naruto was sitting at his desk (as usual) and George Williams was standing there, looking at the floor. _So, I'm not the first one here. But more importantly, I'm on time. _She walked up to George and stood beside him. She laid a gentle hand on his shoulder and whispered in his ear,

"Don't be so nervous, George-kun. This meeting will be over before you even know it." George sighed some, making Yumi worry a bit. Had she said something wrong or offensive? She just didn't know. She took her hand off of his shoulder and let her hand fall back to her side.

"I guess you're right. I'm just a worrywart, that's all." He said after a while.

"Everyone worries about something every once in a while. It's nothing to be ashamed of."

"But I seem to worry _all _the time."

"It happens when you have three kids under your wing. It's just showing that you're looking out for them."

"Yeah, I guess you're right." Yumi allowed herself to smile a bit. At least George understood what she was trying to say to him. She turned back toward the Hokage, who seemed to be contemplating something. She didn't bother to ask, though. It was none of her business, anyways. It was probably important, though. She kept this thought in mind while waiting for the other two people to get there so they could start the meeting.

* * *

Amaterasu leapt through the trees, pushing off each branch she landed on with a bit of strength. She was annoyed at her students because Haruo and Ayane had gotten into another argument. Lee had gone off somewhere else to avoid the screaming and tension. Amaterasu had tried to break them up, and it took a bit of time and a bit of fuss just to separate them. She then scolded them for yelling at each other and for possibly making their teacher late for her meeting with the Hokage. She had wanted to slap the two of them for arguing over something so stupid, but had withheld herself, just like every other time she had done this. She landed on a branch and pushed off with a bit more strength than last time. She wasn't happy, and it clearly showed every time the emotion came knocking at her front door.

She made it to the Hidden Leaf Village's front gate and walked through it without so much as a hindrance. She looked up with her dark gray eyes and saw the Hokage's tower in the distance. She quickened her pace. She weaved her way through the small crowds of people that were on the street without tripping over someone's foot and falling flat on her face or bumping into someone and landing on her backside. She was pretty small, so it was easy for her to do such a thing.

A small smile appeared on her face as she finally reached the Hokage's tower. However, the smile disappeared quickly when she saw Josh ahead of her. She ran up to him and poked his shoulder harshly. The blonde-haired male turned his head slightly and smiled.

"Well, it's good to see you again, Amaterasu-chan."

"Hmph! I can't say the same thing about seeing you."

"Ah, you're too harsh."

"I'm pissed."

"Is it because of your students getting into a fight again?"

"You guessed it, Maestro."

"I feel your pain." He was actually speaking the truth when he said this. He sometimes hated his students because of their arguments that would normally turn into duels. He would usually have to break them up, and that could be a royal pain in the ass. He sighed some and strolled into the building. Amaterasu quickly got confirmation to go in and went inside. She followed Josh through the corridor. She noticed that he was going a bit faster than usual. _Doesn't he try to avoid being on time for meetings? What's with him today? _She didn't bother to ask. She just wasn't in the mood for talking herself.

The two reached the Hokage's office not even a minute later and Josh knocked on the door. Almost immediately, they heard Naruto's voice come through the door,

"Who is it?"

"It's Josh and Amaterasu."

"Come in." He said somewhat wearily. Josh opened the door and strolled in, Amaterasu right behind him. She noticed that George and Yumi were already there. Naruto wasn't even looking at her or Josh. _I'm only going to guess that we're on time, since we're not being scolded for being late. _She stood beside Yumi and Josh stood next to George. Naruto sighed and looked up at them with a serious look on his face.

"You all should know why I called you to my office." The four of them nodded in unison. Naruto continued,

"We're here to discuss the Chunin Exams." Silence filled the room. Naruto had expected that, to be honest. The Chunin Exams was something that many ninja took very seriously, including himself. The topic had never been taken lightly by anyone, and he liked it that way.

"I've talked with the three elders and have discussed the best time to have the exams. After some debate, we figured that the beginning of the exams will be at the end of this week. That's only in about two days, give or take, if my memory serves correctly. Now, I need to ask each and every one of you an important question, so listen up." Naruto's gaze went toward Amaterasu first, making her slightly nervous. She kept her cool, though, and stared him dead in the eyes.

"Are your students ready?" Naruto asked.

"Haruo, Ayane, and Lee Watanabe are ready to participate in the Chunin Exams, sir." Amaterasu replied. Naruto's gaze went over to Yumi and raised one of his eyebrows, indicating that she was supposed to answer the question.

"Rose Jefferson, Dante Hendershot, and Yuuta Takahashi are ready to proceed with the exams." The gaze went over to George, Naruto keeping the same expression on his face.

"Akahana Yamazaki, Akihiko Sasaki, and Zero Michaelis are ready to participate, sir." Lastly, there was Josh.

"Ray, Takashi, and Karin are ready for the Chunin Exams, sir." Naruto smiled at this. It seemed that all twelve students were ready for the Chunin Exams. It was going to be interesting, watching the students fight their way through a good challenge.

"Alright. You're dismissed." The four teachers disappeared from the room swiftly and Naruto leaned back in his chair. He rubbed his eyes some and stared at the ceiling. _At least that's out of the way. Now, let's see if I can finish this damn paperwork without falling asleep. _He picked up another sheet of paper from the pile and began to read it over. Yeah, paperwork is the hardest part of the job for the Hokage. So demanding, and there was usually a lot of it to go through. Not fun in the least.

* * *

George was walking to the dango shop to meet with his students. He had told Akihiko the night before to tell the other two that they should go to the dango shop at high noon sharp the next day. He had a feeling that Akihiko had done so. He usually followed his orders without question. Also, the boy had a close relationship with him, and it wasn't just because of them both appreciating art (although that was part of it). He felt that Akihiko could talk about his problems easier with him than his parents. Akihiko had said once that he loved his parents dearly and didn't want to hurt them with his opinions, so he usually kept them to himself. George had told him that if he needed someone to talk to, that he could talk to him anytime. Akihiko agreed to it, and now, every once in a while, the boy would come over to his house or George would go over to his house and discuss whatever was on their minds, and the two would talk for hours on end. Oh, how George loved those times.

He came upon the dango shop not too long after and stepped inside. In one corner of the shop sat his students, already eating their dango. Akahana noticed him first and waved him over with a smile on her face. George couldn't help but smile at this and he walked over to their table. Akihiko waved at him shyly and Zero acknowledged his presence by nodding once in his direction. George took a seat next to Akihiko and surveyed his students quickly. He grabbed a stick of dango and bit into one. He chewed it somewhat thoughtfully before swallowing.

"As you know, I've met with the Hokage just recently."

"Ooh! What did he say?" Akahana said, her voice full of excitement.

"I told him that you guys were ready for the Chunin Exams. I've seen your progress over the course of a year and your skills and teamwork have significantly improved, so I believe that I made the right decision when I told him that. Do you feel ready for the exams?"

"Yeah!" Akahana exclaimed.

"Sounds interesting. I'll do it." Akihiko said next.

"It does sound like something that we could do. Sure, I've got nothing else to do." Zero spoke in his soft voice.

"Alright, if that's how you feel, I'll accept it. They take place at the end of the week, so make sure you mark it on your calendars. I just want to warn you of one thing, though."

"What's that?" Akahana and Akihiko spoke simultaneously. George now grew serious and placed the clean stick back onto the plate. He looked them over carefully, studying them. He took in a deep breath and spoke in a serious manner,

"I'll warn you now, the exams will test you to your limits. This is not just some trip through the park. You are going to have to work as a team more than ever and depend on one another if you wish to live." A heavy silence fell over the table. The three teens had _not _expected their own sensei to say something like that. If he was saying something like that and he actually meant it, that could only mean one thing; they would have to heed his words and take them seriously. Akahana worked up the courage to speak up after a little while,

"Don't worry, sensei. We'll make it through. We know each other well enough by now to know what each of us can do and what each of us can not do. And you said it yourself; we're a good team. We'll make it through. I promise!" As she finished her statement, she placed a hand over her heart to show that she meant what she said. Her olive green eyes were brimming with confidence. George couldn't help himself but approve of her words.

"I knew I could count on you three. Make me proud to be your sensei when you're out there."

"Right!" The three teens said in unison. George picked up the other stick of dango and smiled a bit more. _Maybe they are actually ready for the exams. I just hope they're going to be okay without me there. _He was a worrywart, but he had to be at least a little bit. He knew from his own experiences from the Chunin Exams that they could be dangerous and sometimes deadly if one didn't take them seriously. He ate his dango without another word. The teens went to talking about something completely different. He would just let them talk for now. They deserved to have some fun before they went into one of the most challenging tests of their entire lives.

* * *

"Are you serious?!" Karin exclaimed in surprise. Josh had just told her, Ray, and Takashi that they had been accepted into the exams and that they were going to take place at the end of the week. Ray didn't seem all that bothered by it, but it was hard to tell how he felt, since he did not usually reveal much at all. Takashi seemed to be a bit excited at the news, a big smile on his face. Josh had just taken another drag from his cigarette when Karin slammed her hands on the table, startling Takashi and Josh somewhat.

"You're serious, sensei? You told the Hokage that we were ready for the Chunin Exams?" Josh could see the fire burning in her pink-colored eyes. He nodded and replied,

"Yes, I did. I asked you if you were ready before I left, and you said that you were. So I told him that all three of you were ready to participate in the exams. And don't worry, there's plenty of competition to sink your teeth into. Didn't you say that you were looking for something _more _challenging, Karin?" She opened her mouth, but nothing was coming out. Josh had a point, she noted. She had told him that only a few days ago, so she had no right to complain about it. She sat back down in her chair, unable to come up with an answer. _So, sensei just trumped Karin and made her shut her goddamn mouth for once. Oh, how sweet victory feels! _Ray thought happily. He didn't reveal this, though. The last time he had let out his evil smile (and it's _creepy_), his teammates and sensei had slowly backed away from him and walked the other way. Obviously, they had been intimidated. He didn't blame them for being scared. A lot of kids had been scared of him back at the academy (and I mean _a lot_).

"So, we only have about two days to prepare for these exams. Right, sensei?" Takashi asked. Josh nodded and took another drag from his cigarette. The purple-haired male leaned back in his seat and smiled slightly. _Finally! Something interesting's gonna happen! I can't wait!_ Takashi had to resist jumping up in the air and cheering. That would probably bring him some odd stares, and that wasn't something he wanted to do. Instead, he kept his mouth shut and sat there, his face portraying no emotion.

* * *

Haruo, Ayane, Lee, and Amaterasu were sitting around a round table in the Watanabe household, four cups of black tea, one for each of them. Ayane looked like she was ready to leap out of her seat and shoot through the house and into the sky like a human rocket, the way she was fidgeting in her chair. Haruo had the same apathetic expression on his face, but Amaterasu saw a spark of excitement in his eyes. Lee was harder to read, though. Amaterasu found it slightly harder to read Lee than his two older siblings, but she could probably guess he didn't exactly like the idea of the exams. She believed that he was probably thinking that it involved fighting other people. Lee was a pacifist, not liking the idea of fighting others, unlike his brother and sister who loved fighting. Amaterasu placed a hand on his shoulder, causing him to look at her straight in the eyes.

"Don't worry, Lee. If my memory serves me, the first part of the exam doesn't involve any fighting. It's just a written test. You're used to those, right?"

"Yeah."

"Then you'll have nothing to worry about, at least in that part of the exam. Remember, I've done this before. I can give you any piece of advice that you need."

"Okay." Amaterasu took her hand off of his shoulder and placed it back in her lap. She knew that, even with any advice she gave him, Lee was going to be nervous about the idea of fighting other shinobi. She picked up her cup and sipped at it, feeling the warm liquid run down her throat into her stomach. Black tea always helped her calm down in stressful situations. She looked over toward Haruo, who was also sipping at his tea. She believed that he was possibly thinking of how he was going to deal with his siblings during the exams. She wouldn't have blamed him for this. Sometimes, dealing with younger siblings got out-of-hand and stressful. She leaned back in her chair, wondering what the hell she should do while her students were taking the exams.

* * *

Yumi was strumming her guitar softly, breaking the silence in the room. Her students were waiting for her to tell them the new of what happened at the Hokage's place. Just looking at their body postures told her that all of them were anxious and somewhat impatient. She couldn't hold them against it. She had reacted the same way years ago when her sensei was going to tell her and the rest of her team about the Chunin Exams. She had been so excited when her sensei finally told them the news all of them had been waiting for, she had actually leapt into the air and cheered to the heavens. Her sensei and teammates laughed at her, but she couldn't have possibly cared less about their reactions. She was just happy that she had been accepted to take the exams in the first place.

And now, her students were the same way that she was years ago, and it put a smile on her face. She did not stop strumming her guitar, but she began speaking in her calmest voice,

"You've all been accepted to take the exams."

"Really?!" Rose and Dante exclaimed at the same time. Yumi nodded.

"Booyah, baby! We're going to be in the Chunin Exams! This is going to be so much fun!' Dante said as he jumped into the air, one fist held high. Rose smiled big, happy to know that she was going to be in something that was going to truly test her abilities as a ninja. Yuuta simply smiled.

"That's a relief to hear. I was concerned for a time that we weren't going to get in." Yuuta said.

"Well, I knew in my heart that you would. I've seen you three progress and make astounding improvements in your teamwork. I'm confident in your abilities and your teamwork. You'll make it out fine. I just know it. I can feel it." Yumi answered. Yuuta was comforted by her answer. It was good to know that his sensei had the utmost confidence in her students. He looked over toward his teammates, enthusiastic about the news, and just allowed himself to smile with them. He knew them well enough to know that he could trust them with everything he had, including his life. He knew that the Chunin Exams were going to be hard, but with Dante and Rose by his side, it would make things a lot easier for all of them.

* * *

Finished with the third chapter! The Chunin Exams are going to start in the next chapter, I promise! Be on the lookout for the next chapter coming up soon and review the chapter.


	4. The Chunin Exams Begin!

**Chapter 4: The Chunin Exams Begin!**

The day that all young ninja enrolled in it had arrived; the first day of the Chunin Exams. The sun had risen into the sky, just like on any other day, shining its light upon the village. People were already roaming the streets, going along with their business for the day. The Hokage was already in his office, checking through the paperwork for that day. He was slightly anxious himself because of the exams. He didn't get to see the genin take the first part of the exam (since it was a written test, and that was kind of a bore to him, anyway) or the second part of the exam (the Forest of Death, which was something he wasn't exactly planning on reliving the memories of), but he _would _get to see them in the preliminary rounds later on. That little fact alone was making him nervous, but excited at the same time. He smiled a bit at the thought. He picked up another sheet of paper and tried to read it, but his mind was too occupied at the moment by the exams, so he set it down on the desk and leaned back in his chair, sighing. It was going to be one of _those _days, he thought somewhat miserably.

He then noticed, as he looked at his desk, a cup of tea sitting on its tiny white saucer, the steam coming out of the cup in its wavy fashion. He lifted one hand and grabbed it, bringing it to his lips. He sipped at it some and smiled. _Jasmine tea, eh? Sakura's had a thing for it lately. _He pushed the thought back and sipped at it again. He felt the warm liquid slip down his throat and smiled a bit more. He finished the tea in five minutes and set the empty cup gently back on the saucer it came on. He then picked up the document that he had failed to read a few minutes before and began to scan it for important details, just like how Sakura and Angel did it (and he had seen them do it plenty of times in the past).

* * *

At the Yamazaki household, Akahana was up in her room, preparing herself for the big day. She knew that she had to be prepared for it, and she couldn't show up willy-nilly in a goofy fashion. She had to make a good first impression, since the exams were _huge._ She had combed her red-pink hair into submission after wrestling out the many tangles in it and had on a light blue T-shirt, black capris, and dark gray ninja sandals. She looked at herself in the mirror, examining herself from every possible angle she could get. Satisfied that everything was in order, she began to head out of the room, grabbing her Konoha headband along the way. She descended the stairs quickly and went straight for the door, but not before calling out,

"Mom, I'm going to the academy!"

"Well, good luck, sweetheart!" She heard her mother say back. She slid open the door and stepped out into the outdoor air. She breathed in deeply and a wide smile came upon her face. She walked quickly down the street, determined to make it on time. She had promised to Zero and Akihiko (right after George had left them to take care of some 'important business') that she would be there before the exams started, and she wasn't about to let her teammates down because she was late for an important exam. She hurried down the street, dodging groups of people along the way. She couldn't afford to be late right now. It could spell trouble for her, and she didn't like being in trouble. It only meant bad things for her, and she had learned this the hard way. She shivered slightly at the thought before dismissing it and focusing on the task at hand.

She made it to the academy several minutes later and saw her teammates standing outside of the front door. Akihiko was wearing a black button-up shirt with long sleeves, black pants, and navy blue kung-fu sandals. His red hair was still as shaggy as ever, she noted, but didn't bother to say anything about it. It wasn't a priority right now. Zero, on the other hand, was in his usual outfit; a black hooded sweater that had a zipper in the front and had a white and red design on the front as well, a black hat that resembled a rabbit, black pants, and gray sneakers. He also had his bangs covering his eyes again, something that she secretly wished would stop one day (but it will have to wait for some other time). Akihiko gave his usual small smile and wave to her and spoke in his low, soft voice,

"You made it."

"See? I told you that I would make it on time. Now, why are we just standing around here when we can be in the building, getting ready for the beginning of the Chunin Exams?"

"Agreed." Zero spoke up for the first time since he had arrived there.

"Alrighty! Let's go!" Akahana declared while pointing toward the double doors, as if she was telling her teammates to ram down the door and charge inside. The trio walked up to the door and pulled both of the doors open. They stepped inside and felt cool air hit them straight in their faces, making them shiver and get goose bumps. They walked down the hall somewhat cautiously, not knowing what to expect. Akahana was questioning in her mind why the place seemed so quiet. Were they late? Were they early? And where the heck were the other genin? She just didn't know, but she would find out, along with her two teammates, the answers to those questions very soon.

They reached the end of the hall and stopped when Akihiko put up a single hand. He looked down the hall to his right, and then turned his head to look down the other hall on his left. Akahana and Zero stood silent as Akihiko did this. The trio then began to hear voices, faint and muffled, coming from the hall to their rights.

"We go down this hallway." Akihiko said while pointing down the corridor on his right.

"Right." Zero and Akahana responded at the same time. They turned and headed down that hall. They made it to the end in less than a minute and they noticed, as they had gotten closer, that the voices had gotten louder. When they reached the end, they could almost hear what people on the other side of the door were saying. Akihiko slid the door open and stepped inside. Akahana and Zero followed suit and the three teens got a big surprise; the whole room was occupied by other genin, and a lot of them were from the other villages. Akahana swallowed some saliva that was in her mouth in some sort of effort to calm herself down and Zero shoved his hands into his pockets and looked at the wooden floor. They walked further into the room so they weren't blocking the door. Some of the genin looked at them with different expressions on their faces, but most of them just went on with their own business, as if the newcomers didn't exist at all.

* * *

Ayane had watched the three newcomers walk into the room and smiled. To her, the more competition, the better. She liked playing with other people (and what she means by playing, she actually means fighting them and toying with them in the process) and the more people that showed up, the better. A wicked smile came upon her face, and Haruo happened to look over at that very moment. He noticed the expression on his younger sister's face and sighed loudly in annoyance. He was beginning to think that he wouldn't even get a moment of peace during the exams. He averted his eyes away from her and looked at his younger brother Lee, who was folding a piece of paper into an origami piece.

"What'cha making?" He asked, slightly curious about it. Lee glanced over at Haruo for a moment before turning back to his work. He studied it for a few moments before making up his answer and voicing it,

"I was trying to make a crane."

"Oh, that's nice. Can you teach me sometime?" (And he actually meant this).

"Sure. After the exams."

"That's what I meant."

"Okay." Lee went back to finishing his crane while Haruo looked over toward the newcomers. _They don't look like much, especially the green-haired boy in the bunny hat. Although, I can't exactly say that. I do not know their strengths or weaknesses. I'll just find that out when the appropriate time comes. As for the others...well, they'll be the same deal. _He did, however, have one exception to this, and that was the man that called himself Ray. He could feel that the boy, from the first moment he walked through the door, that he was trouble. He could feel the dark aura that had come off of the boy and actually felt the goose bumps crawl up onto his skin. He knew that, if they encountered each other in a fight, that he was going to have to fight with all he had. Lee noticed the somewhat contorted look on his elder brother's face and started to worry a bit. _I've never seen that look on his face before. What's going on with him? _He didn't bother asking, though. He didn't want to potentially be yelled at right now.

* * *

Karin surveyed the room full of genin and grimaced. _What the hell's this? I didn't expect this many people here. Then again, many genin want to make the transition from being a rookie ninja to being a more experienced one. And what perfect way to do that than to take the Chunin Exams? However, they're going to have to pass it in order to achieve that goal. _She had talked to Josh yesterday, asking him for more details on the exams. He told her that, from what he remembered when he took them, that there were three stages, or parts, to the exams. First off, there was a written test to see what they knew from their classes in the academy. Second, there was the Forest of Death, and it earned its name because many genin did _not _make it through. That scared her a bit. A forest that could kill you in seconds if you weren't careful? She caught herself wondering, for just one moment, that even Ray would probably have some trouble passing through this so-called 'Forest of Death', and she knew that he was one tough dude to break.

Next, there was something called the preliminary rounds, and these occurred between the second and third parts of the exams. It was a series of matches that determined which genin were fit enough to move onto the next and final part of the exam. It sounded like fun to her, and it would test her skills against new opponents. The final part of the exam was the most important of them all; the official matches. Genin fought in a public arena to determine who was best fit for becoming a chunin. Afterward, some lucky genin would get called to the Hokage's office and given the honorary promotion to Chunin. _It shouldn't be that much of a big deal, if I pass the preliminary rounds. That, and the Forest of Death are going to be the most challenging for me and everyone else. They do sound difficult. I can just imagine how much harder it's going to be once we get to those stages. Well, there's no point dawdling over it now. Might as well focus on the test. By the way, where's the instructor? I thought they were supposed to be here before everyone else. _Takashi seemed to detect the question in her mind, because he then spoke,

"Maybe the teacher's running late." Karin turned to him, surprise apparent in her pink eyes. She forced herself to be calm and looked at him dead in the eyes.

"Maybe so. Who knows?"

"You're right." That was surprising. Karin had expected him to say something, like a smartass comment, but it wasn't the case this time. This disturbed her a bit. She averted her eyes away from him and looked around the room again, trying to distract her mind from what had just happened. Ray saw her looking around, but said nothing about it. He wasn't going to go through the trouble of having to speak to her. She annoyed him just by being there (they didn't exactly get off to a good start when they first met). He kept staring at his lap, wishing that he had brought along at least one knife so he wasn't wanting to run out of there for no good reason (yes, he's very attached to his knives. They're like his babies. He cares for them a lot). He played with a piece of loose skin on one of his fingers, trying to somehow distract himself from not having his knives with him.

* * *

Dante, Rose, and Yuuta were in one of the corners in the back of the room. Rose was silently observing everyone else in the room, since she was too anxious to even think about talking. Yuuta and Dante were having a quiet conversation with each other, discussing things about the Chunin Exams.

"What do you think is going to happen?" Dante started off.

"I honestly don't know. I'm just hoping we don't get butchered. I heard from Yumi-sensei that some kids don't make it past the second part of the exams."

"Isn't that the Forest of Death?"

"Yep."

"Well, we're in for an interesting ride."

"You can say that again."

"We're in for an interesting ride." They stopped talking and Yuuta looked around the room. He was amazed at how many people had showed up in this one room of the Konoha ninja academy. _They must be serious about wanting to be chunins. Then again, who isn't in this room? _He knew, from his sensei, that things would sometimes be tense, but that was because the exams put a ton of pressure on people at certain times. He was just hoping that he was not going to be one of the people that went crazy from taking these exams. That would spell disaster, and only bad things came from disasters, he frequently saw.

Just as he finished his thought, he heard the door slide open and someone stepping inside. The clicking of the shoes' heels against the wooden floor suggested that the person was wearing high heels. He looked up from the floor and saw a black-haired woman at the front desk. Her hair reached to about halfway down her thighs and was as black as anything he had ever seen. Her deep crimson eyes looked as if they could pierce someone's soul just by looking at them dead in the eyes. This scared him a bit. Also, the woman held herself in a way that made him think that she was in charge. And he was about to be proven right.

"Everyone in your seats now!" The woman hollered. Everyone stopped talking immediately and scrambled around, trying to find a vacant seat. Yuuta managed to find one next to a blonde-haired girl that wore a side braid. The students were in their seats in seconds and the woman looked each and every one over carefully, as if she was trying to pick out some detail that Yuuta just couldn't quite figure out. Then the woman began to speak in a low voice that radiated seriousness,

"I can probably assume why all of you think you are here." All there was was silence. She continued regardless,

"You think that you're going to become chunins. Some of you might, and some of you might not. No one knows. But remember this; these exams are going to test you in ways that you never even _dreamed _of. So don't think that this will just be a walk in the park. That kind of thinking is what gets people killed in here." Yuuta gulped in fright. He could hear other students doing the same thing, and he couldn't blame them. They had just been told that they could possibly die during these exams. It wasn't an easy pill to swallow. Yuuta now got the idea, like some of the other students, that the Chunin Exams were going to be _much _harder than he had ever thought...

* * *

Well, that took a bit more time than expected to complete. Regardless, it is complete! The Chunin Exams have officially begun. How will the students fare in the first part of the exam that is the written test? Find out in the next chapter!


	5. The Written Test

**Chapter 5: The Written Test**

Akahana had to force herself to swallow what little saliva she had in her mouth. As soon as she swallowed, she felt the tissues in her throat becoming dry. She glanced around the room somewhat frantically, trying to find Akihiko or Zero. Unfortunately, from her seat, she couldn't find them. She turned back to the desk in front of her and had to force herself to be calm. _Alright, calm yourself, Akahana. You know that the teacher's just trying to scare the students into doing well on the test and she doesn't really mean it. Or does she? No, she couldn't possibly mean it. However, it's possible that she means it. Gah! What am I thinking?! Of course she means it! It's the stinking Chunin Exams, for Pete's sake! _Akahana sighed loudly, knowing that it was useless to try and convince herself of something that wasn't true.

Akihiko was not exactly calm himself. He had never faced something this scary or drastic before. He was beginning to wonder whether or not coming to the Chunin Exams had been a mistake on his part. He mentally smacked himself right after he finished the thought. _You can't be thinking like that! And you certainly can't bail out on your teammates now! What would they think of you if you did something like that? Probably not very highly. _He bit his lip with his fang and forced himself to remain calm. Even Zero was a bit intimidated by what the woman said. He wasn't freaking out like some of the other students were, but he wasn't very calm, either. No one was, he assumed after a quick look around the room. He kept his eyes hidden under his bangs, not wishing to make eye contact with people.

Haruo was a bit surprised at the statement. He knew that the Chunin Exams were not going to be easy, but he hadn't expected _that. _He was also slightly impressed with the woman, if he did say so himself. She knew how to intimidate people very well. They could've gotten along, if only he wasn't the student and was much older. He sneaked a glance over at Ayane, who was on the other side of the room. She looked somewhat excited by the whole thing and wanted to groan in frustration. _Does _anything _get through that girl's thick skull? Sheesh! Sometimes I think she's from another planet and Mom just took her in as an infant because she was cute. Ugh..._ He turned his head and saw Lee a few seats behind him, somewhat shaken by the whole thing. He didn't exactly blame him for that. He just wasn't used to this sort of thing, and he would probably be the same way if he was in his shoes.

Takashi's eye widened in surprise. _Whatever happened to making it sweet so we _don't _get scared like little kids and monsters under the bed? _He set his hands in his lap and tried not to crack his knuckles. He didn't want all of the eyes on him. That would be extremely awkward and somewhat creepy.

Ray remained the statue that he was; unfazed and dead serious about the whole situation. Although, he had to admit, he was somewhat impressed with the way the woman intimidated the students. _I could probably learn a thing or two about intimidation from her once this whole thing blows over. _He didn't smile externally, but internally, he was.

Karin was cleaning one of her ears with her index finger. Did she hear what she had just heard? That thinking like this was going to be a breeze would get you _killed _in the exams? She hadn't prepared herself for that. She pulled her finger out of her ear and listened to the silence of the room. She figured, because of the lack of sound, that the teacher was giving the students a bit of a chance to absorb the new information. Her eyes darted over to the white-haired male sitting next to her (Yuuta) and he looked pretty rattled from the sudden statement. She shrugged and turned back to the person in front of her, staring at the back of their head like she was trying to bore holes through it using solely her eyes.

Rose bit her lip to keep herself from gasping. She could feel the fang puncture the skin and make blood seep from the newly-created wound. She licked the blood into her mouth before it could run down her chin and onto the desk. She surveyed the area, trying to find either one of her teammates. However, she failed to do so. _Rats! _She wanted to bite her lip again, but didn't want to suck blood into her mouth again.

Dante, he believed, had just gotten one heck of a wake-up call. He hadn't prepared for something like this. _Damn, I need to better prepare for this kind of stuff. I'm a ninja! I should be able to expect these things by now. Then again, I'm only a genin. What do I know? _He gave up on the thought and placed his arms on the desk, and then setting his chin on top of them He looked at the woman, who was still staring at each and every one of the students. Some part of him feared for his life. The woman then nodded, satisfied with something, and broke the silence,

"Now, I know what you're thinking. Some of you are scared, and others are utterly terrified or at least a bit intimidated. What I said is true. Do not think for one second that these exams are going to be easy. That kind of thinking will leave you in the deepest pit of hell." Students gasped and gulped at this. The woman didn't hesitate this time to look around the room and continued on,

"It's a scary thing to hear, I get it. I heard the same thing when I was taking the Chunin Exams. I'm just repeating what I've heard. Now, on with the exam. The first part of the Chunin Exams is probably one of the easiest things you'll have to do. It's just a written exam. No tricks and no gimmicks whatsoever. But just remember, this test will determine if you move onto the next part of the exams. And also, you can't cheat, just like with every other test. If you're caught, you're out and can't retake it. I'll hand out the written test and the pencils. I'll tell you the rest of what you need to know when all of you get your tests and pencils." As she was talking, she was pulling out something from her desk. She placed a pile of papers on top of the desk and a cup of pencils next to it. She could see students staring at the papers and pencils on the desk, but it didn't really matter to her. She grabbed the papers in one hand, walked over to the students closest to the door, and placed the pile of tests in front of them.

"Take one and pass it around." The first student reached for it, grabbed one, and slid the pile to the second student. They did the same thing, and this process continued until the papers got to the last student in that row. They picked a paper off of the pile, picked up the rest of the pile, and handed it off to the next front row. She watched as the students received their tests and nodded once before walking back over to the desk and grabbing the cup of pencils. She then walked back over to the same students that got the tests and placed the cup down. Before she could say the same thing from before, the students nearest to the cup took a pencil each and passed it off. She smiled somewhat at this and went back over to her desk, silently watching the students do what they were told to do.

Every student now had a test on their desk and a pencil in hand. The woman was satisfied, and it showed somewhat on her face. It disappeared when she stood up from her chair again and stared at them.

"Alright, the last thing you need to know about this test; you only have one hour to complete it. Ten questions, ten minutes max on each. Any questions?" The students started to talk to one another, surprised and possibly somewhat angered by the time limit. The woman didn't blame them for how they were reacting. She had seen the same thing when she herself had taken the Chunin Exams. She pushed the thought out of her head and looked around the room. She cracked her knuckles and it silenced the whole room (it was _that _loud). She took in a deep breath and spoke,

"Alright, no one has any questions about anything at all?" The students remained silent, as if they thought they were going to get killed if they dared ask a question. She placed her hands flat on the desk and narrowed her eyes.

"If that's how it is, I guess we'll begin. It now two o'five. We'll go to three o'five, exactly one hour. Begin!" The students were shocked into picking up their pencils and beginning to read the questions and answer them. The woman sat in her chair and leaned backward slightly. Even though people said to her in the past that watching students take a test was like watching grass grow or like watching paint dry, but she found something interesting about this type of situation. It was fascinating to her to watch the students that breezed through their tests and the kids that were nervous and tapping their feet on the ground or biting their nails or lip while trying to figure out the correct answer. She could sometimes laugh at this, but never did. She was just as content with watching them take their tests. She started to wonder who would pass and who would fail. _Let's hope that they're better than last year's genin. Oh, man were they horrible! Only about five percent of them actually passed the exam. I could and still can definitely see why the Hokage was slightly disappointed with them. Oh, well. That's all in the past now. Let's see what _these _rookies have to show me. _She smiled a little at the last part of the thought. She was going to enjoy herself today.

* * *

Akahana was reading the first question for the third time. What exactly was the question looking for? She read it another time, and then another time. What was she missing from the question? What was she just not getting? She decided to come back to the first question and moved onto the second one. She read it and, as she was reading it, that it seemed a bit harder than the first question. _Well, that's odd. Why did the question get harder? _She read it more carefully, making sure she wasn't missing anything. She scratched the side of her head in confusion. Weren't tests supposed to have some easy questions and some hard ones? She felt that this test had just hard questions and they were just going to get harder as she went on, she feared.

Akihiko had breezed through the first question and was finishing up the second one quickly. He seemed calm, but actually, he was abnormally tense. He felt like someone was peering over his shoulder just to get his answer on their paper. He had to resist the urge every time to look back to confirm his suspicions. The teacher had told the students that if they were caught cheating; they were taken out of the room and not allowed to take the test again. It hadn't scared him before, but now it was for some reason he couldn't identify. He would just have to deal with it as it came.

Zero was having it no better than Akihiko. He felt like someone was trying to peer over his shoulder to copy his answer. He wasn't mentally freaking out because of it, but he felt there was some cause for concern. He sighed very softly so no one would hear it and began to complete his answer to the third question.

Haruo was breezing through the test. He was already on the fourth question. He sneaked a glance toward the clock and grimaced a little. _It hasn't been twenty minutes yet. I'm going to be sitting here doing nothing while the others finish. Too bad they wouldn't let me bring something in so I could entertain myself should I finish early. Ah, well. No time to be dwelling on that. I've got a test to finish. _He read the fifth question and was slightly stumped by it. He read it again, taking mental notes in his head of the most important details. He made sure to read it another time to make sure that he didn't miss anything. He then formulated a response to it and began to write it somewhat quickly. He was never one to like spending too long on a test, and this test was no exception to him.

Ayane struggled with the third question. She had barely gotten past the second question and was now stuck on the third one. She pouted like a child who didn't get their favorite chocolate bar from the store and thought about what the question could possibly be asking her. _Is it asking me to write out a formula based on the data given or is it asking me to make an equation and solve it? Darnit, I wish whoever made this test would make this question make more sense! _She picked up her pencil again and began to reread the question. She wasn't about to fail the test just because one little question stood in her way. She'd torture the living heck out of it and answer it (and I'm not sure how exactly you torture the heck out of a question. It's just her.) so she could pass this darned exam and move onto the next part.

Lee was on the fifth question, just like Haruo was, but he was puzzling over it. He was still trying to grasp what in the world it could be asking him. He tried picking out the most important details, the ones that would help him solve this problem, but some of them were hiding from him. Was he just not getting the meaning of the question? He noted it as a possibility. He bit the inside of one of his cheeks, a nervous habit of his. He kept trying to dissect the question into individual parts so he could solve it.

Takashi was finding this test to be a bit harder than he had previously thought. He was on the fourth question, and he was not getting it. What did it mean? He lightly punched his head, as if it would help get the answer into his head. Apparently, it didn't work, since he still did not have the answer to the question. _Ray and Karin are probably doing better than me. _He thought miserably. And he was right, about Ray, anyway.

Ray was already on the sixth question and already formulating an answer to it. He tapped the eraser end of the pencil on his right temple lightly. He sucked on his lip some before putting his pencil to the paper and began writing his response. He wrote it quickly, his thoughts pouring onto the paper almost effortlessly. He had done this many times before in the past with tests, and this one was no exception except with one test. It was the final test before the graduation exam. One of the questions had baffled him, and when time was nearly up, he bullshitted an answer and just handed in his test. He was still surprised that he got a good grade on that test. He expected to fail that test completely. He drew his thoughts away from the memory and focused on what was at hand.

Karin was stuck on the fifth question. She just didn't get it. She frowned and put her pencil down. She put her face in her hands and forced herself to breathe deeply to compose herself. _I'm letting this test get the best of me. I'm letting it light my temper. I can't let it do that. I just can't! Calm yourself, Karin, calm yourself. Just breathe and you'll be able to think more rationally about this. Just breathe, just breathe. _She blew out the air in her lungs and sneaked a glance toward the white-haired male next to her (Yuuta). She noticed that he was only on the fourth question and seemed to be deep in thought. She cursed to herself silently and picked up her question. Looks like she was going to have to make something up just to get past this hurdle.

Rose bit her bottom lip nervously. She was stuck on the sixth question, and she had barely managed to get past the fifth one. She could already taste blood in her mouth, but she couldn't make herself stop biting her lip. She scratched the side of her head, totally bewildered by this problem. Why couldn't she figure out the problem and what it was asking? She scratched her head somewhat harder and could feel her fingernails digging somewhat into her skin. She kept reading it, hoping that it would make sense eventually.

Dante was just as baffled as his teammates. The fifth question was making him stop dead in his tracks. He tapped his pencil on the base of his neck, his expression somewhat serious. He reread the question, trying to decipher the meaning of it. However, he wasn't getting anything useful. _Damn, they made this test hard! The people that made this certainly knew what they were doing. _He had to admit to himself, he was impressed. Yuuta was right when he said that they didn't know what to expect from the exams. He would have to thank him for warning him about this once the test was over.

* * *

The woman was reading a novel she had gotten from one of the teachers at the academy. She had grown bored of watching nervous students contemplating over their tests. She had decided to read the novel, and was finding it pretty interesting. She was beginning to wonder why she didn't ask for the book sooner. She was going to have to personally recommend it to some of her friends later once she finished it. Her eyes glanced up at the clock and noticed that it was 3:00. How fast did time go in here? She lifted her head some and spoke for the very first time since the genin first started,

"You got five minutes left to finish the test." She knew that there was going to be some more tension in the students because of this update, and there was. The students were now frantically trying to finish the question that they were on. The woman watched this and smiled slightly. _They're freaking out. I love it! _She put her head back down and kept reading the novel. She had to know what was going to happen to the protagonist next.

She looked up again and noted that it was 3:03. Two minutes until the test was over and she could get the hell out of there. Even though she liked the book she was reading, she wasn't very fond of where she was. She couldn't wait to get out of there, just like the majority of the students. She sighed softly and continued reading. She looked up at the clock again and it was 3:04. _Why is time now going so frickin' slow?! Oh, yeah. I'm desperate to get out of here, that's why. _She closed the book and placed it on the desk. She let her eyes glance over toward the clock and watched the second hand make its way around the clock. When the second hand reached the twelve, the minute hand moved onto the one, indicating that it was now 3:05.

"Alright, everyone stop working on your tests and put your pencils down!" The students looked up suddenly, some nearly jumping out of their chairs. They placed their pencils down on the desks and looked at her. She cracked her knuckles and stared at the students.

"You have just completed the first part of the Chunin Exams. Congratulations to all of you." The students murmured to one another, excited and relieved that it was finally over. She knew, however, that they were just waiting to get the heck out of the school. And she was about to grant them their wish.

"You're all dismissed! Go home and rest. You'll need to for the second part of the Chunin Exams, which is thankfully within a week. Now get out of here!" The students scrambled out of their chairs and went for the door. They formed their little squads and went out of the room to do whatever they wished. Once the room had cleared, she began to go around the room and look at all the tests, reading the answers to every question. She was going to have one heck of a time grading the papers, and she knew that she would have to send letters to the genin that passed the test that they could go onto the second part of the exam. She was going to have one heck of an evening doing it. _Ah, crap..._ She was not in the mood to do it, and having to grade all of these papers was not going to help it one bit. It would be a miracle if she even finished them tonight. _Well, I chose this job. I've gotta do my part and just get it over with. _She began gathering the papers, not knowing what else to do.

* * *

Well, that took a while to finish! And I'm sorry if it's kind of boring, but the next chapter will be more exciting! I promise this!


	6. The Letters

**Chapter 6: The Letters**

Now, before I start, I just wanted to say one thing; the woman that hosted the first part of the Chunin Exams does have a name, and it's Rika. I just couldn't come up with one as I was writing the previous chapter. She'll be making another appearance within this chapter. Anyways, that's cleared up. Onwards with the story!

* * *

It had been almost an entire week since the first part of the Chunin Exams took place, and Akahana was still somewhat rattled by it. Her sensei George Williams had tried to comfort her and tell her that it wasn't really that bad, and part of her bought it. However, the rest of her didn't for reasons that she just couldn't identify. She sighed loudly and stabbed her chopsticks into the bowl of ramen in front of her somewhat harshly, like someone stabbing a knife into a wooden target. She grabbed some of the noodles and brought them to her mouth, holding them with her lips. She sucked the noodles in and chewed them quickly before she swallowed. She kept doing this until she had finished the bowl off. She stood up from her chair and walked over to the sink, placing the empty bowl in. She threw the wooden chopsticks in the trash bin that was next to the sink and made her way out of the kitchen without even pausing to push in her chair like she usually did.

She went up the stairs and down a small hallway before getting to her room. She walked into her bedroom and made her way toward the window. She took a seat upon the windowsill and made herself comfortable on it before looking out on the village. It looked normal, just like any other day. She sighed softly and smiled, relaxing a bit. She placed her arm on one knee and let her hand hang. She leaned her head back until the back of it touched the windowpane. She closed her eyes, letting the slight breeze that had come to play with her hair. She thought back to when the three of them had just gotten out of the school and were heading on home.

_Akahana, Akihiko, and Zero were walking down the dirt path away from the academy. Akihiko's body had finally relaxed, no longer in a tense situation, and Zero was his old self again. However, this wasn't exactly the case with Akahana. She was still pretty rattled by the whole thing. She had never experienced a test that made her so scared to know the results of it. Was she going to pass? Or was she going to fail and have to take it again next year? These questions ran through her mind, making her head spin. Akihiko noticed how tense her shoulders were and decided to ask a question,_

"_Akahana-chan, are you alright? You're a bit...tense." Akahana's head whipped around to face him and stared him dead in the eyes. He was surprised by this reaction and stopped, causing Zero to halt in his tracks. She then sighed and replied as her eyes averted away,_

"_I'm not one hundred percent, but I'll be okay. I'm just a bit rattled by the test and how I think I did."_

"_Well, who isn't? That was probably one of the hardest written tests we have ever taken and probably will ever take. It took a lot of courage to take it, and you know it as well as we do. And we made it this far. We've made it past the first hurdle."_

"_But won't we get notices saying whether or not we passed the test?"_

"_Most likely. I'm sure you did fine."_

"_I barely got past the first two questions! Who knows what's going to happen next?"_

"_Well, if it makes you feel any better, I only got to the fifth question before the test stopped. What about you, Zero?" Akihiko now looked at his other teammate. Zero glanced over from under his bangs and shrugged._

"_I only got to the fourth question before the test ended. It'll be a miracle if we all pass."_

"_I'm sure we all did. As long as we gave it our best, we'll be fine. Right?" Akihiko said. Zero shrugged again and Akahana gave a weak nod. Akihiko nodded and shoved his hands into his pockets. The three of them walked along the roads of the village in silence, unsure of what else to say to one another. They got to Akahana's house and she went inside, but not without saying her usual good-bye and hugging the hell out of her two teammates. Then the boys walked away and came upon Zero's house not too long after. He went inside and Akihiko walked alone to his house._

She had to hand it to her teammates; they knew what they were saying back then, and she knew that their words got her mind off of the Chunin Exams for a while. She took her arm off of her knee, threw her legs into her room, and stood up from the window. She turned around and placed her hands on the windowsill. She had to keep a positive mind about it. She already knew that it wasn't going to be easy, but she still had to keep her spirits up. She couldn't bail on her team now because she was being negative about it. That just wasn't her style.

* * *

"I assume you're bugging me in the middle of my work for a good reason, Rika-san?" Naruto asked in a slightly annoyed voice as the black-haired woman stepped into the office. She was holding a folder containing some sorts of documents, which Naruto noticed after a few seconds. She nodded and answered calmly,

"Yes. It's about the first part of the Chunin Exams, Naruto-sama."

"Alright. Tell me what you have."

"First off, I have the acceptance letters to those who passed the test. The percentage of those who passed is much higher than last year's."

"Convince me." Rika could hear the fatigue in his voice as he said it. However, this wasn't going to stop her from telling him the good news (at least she hoped it was to him). A slight smile appeared on her lips as she spoke the next few words,

"How about forty-one percent?"

"That's a thirty-six percentage raise!" Rika saw him rise out of his chair a little and could see the excitement burning in the young man's eyes. She had to admit, even though the Hokage went through a ton of things, managing one's spirit through all of it was a feat in itself. That was one reason that she was so interested in the man and envied him in some way. She pushed the thought out of her head and focused on what she was going to say next. She cleared her throat before continuing,

"Should I send these now, my lord?"

"Send them as soon as you possibly can. Oh, and one question."

"Yes?"

"Did all the students from George's, Josh's, Amaterasu's, and Yumi's squads make it through?"

"Yes, they did. Any particular reason you asked me?"

"Just out of curiosity, my dear."

"If you say so, my lord." She whipped around on her heels and headed for the door. She exited the room and Naruto sat back down in his chair, leaning back in it. A big grin curled itself onto his thin lips. _Well, they're going to be happy, that's for sure. _He chuckled to himself at the little thought.

* * *

Akahana was sitting on her bed, her knees being clung to her chest. She had been this way for a while, trying to not think of what was coming up next. However, the thoughts kept ignoring her feelings for them not to return and kept on coming. She let out a loud sigh and fell onto her bed. _Why am I letting these thoughts get to me? It's unusual and somewhat creepy and annoying. I wish I could stop thinking about this stuff. It would make living somewhat easier for me right now. _She closed her eyes and rolled over, her back to the window. She didn't know what else to do but sleep. Maybe that would take her mind off of it and grant her some peace.

Two hours passed by and she hadn't had any luck getting to sleep. She groaned in slight frustration and turned back over, lying on her back once more. Why wouldn't these thoughts just leave her alone? She sat up and pushed herself off of the bed. She walked over to the door and opened it, going through the doorway without so much as a pause. She went down the hall and down the stairs quickly, heading into the kitchen. There she got a surprise; her mother sitting at the table, reading some sort of letter. _What could she possibly be reading? _She walked over to the table slowly and stopped a foot away from her mother.

"Mom, what are you reading?" Akahana asked in a slightly lower voice than usual. Her mother looked up from the letter, a smile plastered onto her face.

"You won't believe what I'm reading."

"What?"

"You're going onto the second part of the Chunin Exams!"

"No way!" Akahana snatched the paper from her mother, reading over the letter carefully. A huge smile curled itself onto her lips as she read it. Once she was finished, she placed it on the table and hugged her mother tight.

"I'm going on with the exams!"

"Yes, honey, you are! I knew you could do it!" Akahana let go of her, swirled around on her heels, and headed for the front door, but not before yelling out,

"I'm gonna tell my teammates!"

"You do that." She slipped on her sandals and ran out of the house. She booked it to Akihiko's house, dodging people at greater speeds than she had ever before. To her, they were just obstacles. She made it to his house in less than five minutes and jumped into his windowsill. He was sitting in front of a canvas, painting away. She knocked on the side of the window, getting his attention. He looked up from his work and smiled.

"Oh, hey, Akahana-chan. What's up?"

"I'm going onto the second part of the exams!" She answered happily. Akihiko could clearly see the excitement in his teammate. He smiled a little and nodded.

"Well, congratulations. So am I."

"Really?"

"Yes." Akahana leapt off of the windowsill and went over to where Akihiko was. She wrapped her arms around him, holding him close to her. Akihiko blushed a little, not being used to this whole thing. He hesitantly embraced her and held her gently. She let go of him after a while and he let go of her. The two stared into each other's eyes. Akihiko could clearly see the spark in her eyes and Akahana could see his own excitement at the news. She sat upon the floor and glanced at his painting. She was suddenly confused by it.

"Why are you painting the ninja academy?" She asked, not being able to hold it in. Akihiko chuckled to himself a bit, baffling the girl more.

"Well, I decided to paint the academy as a symbol of achievement."

"A symbol of achievement?"

"Yes. It's where we became genin, and it was also the first step in becoming chunin."

"Hm. Makes sense to me." Akihiko nodded and turned back to his painting. He dipped the thin paintbrush in the blue paint, which was now a shade of light blue, and began to color the sky in. Akahana watched in silence as Akihiko worked on his art. She had learned, when she first met him in the academy, that he took his art very seriously, which also meant that he would take the critiques that people gave him seriously. Luckily, she had learned the easy way. She had seen Akihiko lash out only once during the entire time she had known him, and that was when someone destroyed a drawing he had spent many hours on. He had gotten detention for it, but the other kid didn't walk away unpunished either. It made her shudder whenever she thought of it. She wished that she never saw that side of her teammate ever again.

A light landing at the window caught both Akahana and Akihiko's attention. They both looked up and saw Zero and George by the window, George having a smile on his face. Zero looked his normal self, not letting much of his emotions through. George walked over to where Akahana and Akihiko were and placed his hands on their heads, ruffling their hair slightly.

"I knew you were able to do this. I had the fullest confidence in you three, and it seems it wasn't for naught."

"Thanks, sensei!" Akahana piped up. Akihiko simply smiled. George took his hands off of their heads and shoved them into his jacket's pockets.

"Just keep trying your hardest and keep being persistent in your dreams. I know you'll make it through." He said.

"Right!" The three teens answered in unison. George couldn't help but smile a bit more. _I really have trained them well. Let's see how far they'll be able to go. _He leaned against the wall and he, Akihiko, and Akahana began talking about random things, laughing the night away. Zero stayed by the window, watching his teammates and teacher talk amongst one another. He really didn't mind being left out. He just didn't know what to say in the conversation. As long as the rest of his team was content with the news, so was he. He had also gotten a letter stating that he was eligible to go on with the exams. A tiny smile formed on his lips at the thought.

* * *

Lee was creeping somewhat nervously through the forest. The reason for the anxiety was because he secretly feared that Haruo and Ayane would try to find him if they discovered him missing. He remembered the last time that he had been caught sneaking away from them. Haruo had to scold him for doing so and lectured him for at least half an hour about why he shouldn't have snuck off on his own. He didn't want that happening ever again. That lecture and scolding scared him to pieces. He picked up his pace slightly, afraid that they were already on his trail.

He reached a cabin almost an hour later and stopped at the door. Shaking, he lifted one clenched hand and placed it on the wood. He knocked on the door very softly, not even sure that the person inside had heard it. He waited, seeing if the person would come and let him in. He was shaking from the adrenaline rushing through his veins because of the anxiety he was feeling. No one came to the door. He was beginning to grow more anxious and knocked on the door again, but with a little more force. He waited again, shoving his hands in his pockets as he did so. The door suddenly opened, revealing a dark gray-haired male with eyes as dark as Haruo's.

"Lee. Odd seeing you here without sending a message first." The person spoke in a deep voice that was like velvet to Lee's ears.

"I just need to talk to you, Itachi-san." Lee responded. He could hear the shakiness in his own voice, and it scared him a bit. However, Itachi seemed to overlook this fact and motioned him in. He stepped into the cabin and Itachi shut the door behind him, walking past him afterward into the kitchen. Lee followed him in and saw a single cup of tea sitting on the small table. Itachi was at the stove, heating up the kettle once again. Lee took a seat across from the Uchiha's seat and glanced over to where he was, seeing a steel blue cup sitting on the clean countertop. He exhaled softly and turned back so he was staring at the table's surface. He folded his hands together and placed them in his lap, waiting for his tea to be done.

A few minutes passed and Lee looked up, seeing the cup that used to be on the counter now in front of him. He lifted his hands from his lap and grabbed the cup. He lifted it to his lips and took a sip of it. The warmth of it made him relax a bit and he looked up from his tea, seeing Itachi staring at him calmly. Lee sighed and spoke,

"I passed the first part of the Chunin Exams."

"Congratulations, Lee."

"But there's something else." This confused Itachi a little and he motioned for Lee to continue.

"I'm worried about the second part of these exams."

"You mean the Forest of Death."

"Yes, I do. Can you tell me, at least from your own experiences, what it's like?"

"When I had to take the second part of the exams, I learned a couple things in there. One: you do not let your guard down, not even for a second. Otherwise, you're dead. Two: there are very large creatures that you have to watch out for. Three: everyone is after you to get your scroll, which you can't open until you get to the tower in the middle of the forest. You need to rely on your teammates if you're going to make it out of there alive." This scared Lee a lot. He could _die _doing this test? He gulped, his anxiety clearly showing on his face. Itachi noticed this and his features softened a little.

"Don't worry about it too much. You have good teammates, your siblings, right? They are very skilled ninja, from what you've told me. You should be fine if you stick with them."

"Yeah, you're right. I shouldn't worry so much about it. I just don't like fighting all that much."

"I share your feelings, Lee-san." Lee was comforted by that fact. He knew that, from what Itachi told him, that he was a pacifist because he had witnessed some of the Third Great Ninja War when he was only four years old. He caught himself wondering how tough it must've been for Itachi to see something that horrible and not go insane because of it. He sipped at his tea again, thinking about what Itachi had just said to him about the exams. _Haruo and Ayane are very good ninja. Even though Ayane is a bit crazy, she is still very reliable if I need any assistance. Judging from what Itachi-san said, I'm going to have to stick with them more than ever if I want even a scrap of a chance at passing this part of the exam. _The two men sat there in silence, drinking their tea at a relaxed pace.

Some time passed, and Lee realized that he probably had to head out real soon. He drank the rest of his tea quickly and set it down gently on the table. He stood up from his chair, grasping Itachi's attention. He placed his own cup down and stared at him.

"I'm guessing from your quickened pace that you have to get back to your brother and sister soon."

"Yes, I do, or else I'll probably get lectured again by Haruo again."

"Well, it'd be best if you went off on your way."

"Thank you very much for letting me talk to you on such a short notice, Itachi-san."

"Anytime. Just make sure to notify me ahead of time the next time around."

"I will." Lee pushed in his chair and headed out of the kitchen. Itachi could hear the front door opening and closing soon after. He smiled a bit and drank more of his tea. _Hopefully, he'll make it out of the Forest of Death alive. I kind of like that kid. He reminds me somewhat of myself. _He pondered the thought a bit before pushing it into the back of his mind and drinking the rest of his jasmine tea.

* * *

Alright, this chapter is finally completed. And yes, I brought someone _very _awesome back (I'm still not sure how they were resurrected again after dying from the release of the Edo Tensei). The genin that survived the first part of the exam now move onto the Forest of Death. What will happen? Find out in the next chapter!


	7. Enter the Forest of Death!

**Chapter 7: Enter the Forest of Death!**

Lee had somehow managed to sneak back into his team's camp without waking either Haruo or Ayane up. He knew that his sensei wasn't there, since he had been at the brief meeting yesterday between them that she was not going to be there because of some errands that had shown up. So, the three siblings were left to their own devices and set up camp in the forest. Lee had felt uncomfortable talking about his fears of the Forest of Death with his siblings. It was not due to that he didn't love them with all his heart. He did, but he knew them well enough to know that he was not comfortable speaking his mind about the worries he had to either of them. Haruo would've told him to suck it up and start acting like a real shinobi, and Ayane would've called him a sissy for being scared of something that he hadn't seen yet. So that was why he went to Itachi for some advice.

When Lee had first met Itachi only a couple years ago, he was shocked when the Uchiha talked about some of his past (the part about him being with the Akatsuki and when he was resurrected because of the Edo Tensei). Lee also noticed his traits were very similar to his own and secretly felt that he could somehow connect with this new stranger. Not too long after, Lee had been visiting him from time to time to talk about any problems that he was having or just to talk with someone else that wasn't Haruo or Ayane. The Uchiha accepted him into his small home with open arms, wanting him to feel comfortable speaking his mind to someone that was similar to him. Lee and Itachi soon gathered a bond with each other.

The young boy smiled somewhat at the memories, but it didn't stay long. He suddenly heard something stirring near him, wiping the smile clean off of his face, making his lips go back to the straight line that they always were. He dared a look over and noticed that Haruo was getting up, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes. Lee decided to be nice and greet him softly,

"Good morning, Haruo nii-san." Haruo glanced over to Lee and grunted somewhat.

"Morning. Is Ayane up yet?"

"I don't think so. I don't hear her doing any of her crazy antics or anything."

"That's a good sound to me in the morning." Lee couldn't help but agree. Sometimes Ayane's antics would get them both annoyed, but Haruo would be the first to explode, and sometimes Lee was scared that he was going to blow like a volcano. He would scold her harshly about them and why she shouldn't be doing them, but once he saw the sadness on her face, he would lighten up and apologize to her about yelling at her. Haruo did care about Ayane and him, and just had his own way of showing it. Lee stood up from his sleeping bag and began to roll it up. Haruo followed suit, rolling up his own and making sure it would stay rolled up. He then took Lee's and stuffed them in an empty sandbag they had managed to steal some years ago from a market. Lee then looked over to his sister, who was still snoozed like a log. _It's a miracle that she was able to sleep at all, especially when we know what day today is. I'm still not looking forward to the second part of the exam. Ah, geez... _Lee was suddenly snapped out of his thoughts when he heard Ayane stirring. Haruo mumbled something under his breath about his morning being ruined, but he couldn't cared less at this point. He saw Ayane stretching like a cat and yawning big. _Yes, big sis, you have nice teeth, especially those fangs of yours. I don't need to see them more than I have to. _Lee thought somewhat miserably.

"Hey Haruo, Lee! Ready for the big day?" Ayane asked excitedly.

"Yeah, it's going to be a blast. Whoopie." Haruo responded with an annoyed and sarcastic tone in his voice. Lee said nothing and instead nodded. Ayane leapt out of her sleeping bag and rolled it up, stuffing it in the sandbag where the others were. She then smiled at both of her brothers like nothing scary or life-threatening was going to happen and Haruo facepalmed. _Great. I have to spend a whole _five other days _with her in a forest where I could potentially get killed if I do not keep my guard up. Oh, is this going to be rough. _Lee glanced over to Haruo and noticed that he was pinching the bridge of his nose. He walked over to him and laid a careful hand on his shoulder.

"Relax, Haruo-san. It could be worse."

"How could it be worse than it already is?"

"You could spend five whole days with her and without someone like me to talk to."

"Hmm...you've got a point. At least you'll be there."

"Mhm." Lee took his hand off and faced Ayane. Haruo summoned her with one finger and she came skipping over to them like a little kid on the playground. He waited a few moments before speaking,

"Alright, today is the day that we enter the second part of the Chunin Exams. Do not screw up. I won't cover your asses if you mess up. Got it?"

"Crystal!" Ayane shouted.

"Got it." Lee half-mumbled, half-spoke. Haruo nodded and turned swiftly on his heels, motioning for his siblings to come with him. The two got the memo and began following him. Haruo walked with a dignified pace, letting nothing get in his way. _If anyone gets in my way, I'll crush them, no matter what._ The three siblings walked in silence toward the Forest of Death, one with a cold demeanor, another with excitement, and the last with slight anxiety.

* * *

Karin was pacing around the cabin, waiting for her two teammates to wake up. She was ready to hit the road and dominate everyone else at the Chunin Exams, no matter what her sensei said. He had told her that she needed to think things through more thoroughly and efficiently, but even he knew that these words would not stick in her brain for very long. She kept pacing in the small living room, her arms crossed over her chest and her expression hardened, like it had been for the past few days. She wanted to get these exams over and done with, but she knew that time sped up for no one, no matter how desperate they were. A sigh escaped her lips as she continued to wait.

Almost an hour passed before she noticed a hopeful sign. She saw one of the bedroom doors opening and out stepped Takashi, wrapping his dark purple scarf around his neck. _I don't even get why he keeps insisting that he wears it. It's pretty pointless to me. But even I can not change him now. _She suddenly noticed him staring at her with a tired look in his eyes and she turned away, not wanting to make eye contact with him at the moment. Takashi shrugged it off and assumed that she was in one of her 'moods' again. He leaned against the refrigerator, waiting for Ray to come on out of his room. He was excited about what was going to happen within a few short hours, but was somewhat nervous and scared. He had to spend five days with his teammates, and they had enough problems staying together now. He just hoped that it wouldn't turn chaotic on them and cost them the second part of the exams or worse, their lives. He gulped down some saliva, the tissues in his throat becoming dry.

He then heard the other bedroom door open and saw Ray step out in his usual black trench coat. Ray glanced over at Karin and grunted in a way that made it seem like he was trying to say good morning to her, according to Takashi. He then looked over to where Takashi was and the purple-haired boy shivered in fright. _Sheesh! He still gives me the creeps even after all we've been through, and I'm pretty sure it's worst in the mornings. Well, that is kind of understandable. Hardly anyone I know likes mornings that much, if at all. _He pushed himself off of the wall reluctantly and went over to his teammates.

"So, today's finally the day, huh?" Takashi spoke first.

"Yeah. I can't wait to crush everybody else!" Karin exclaimed.

"Hold on, Karin. Remember what Josh said. We can't just go charging in there like bulls. We'll be picked off easily if we do that."

"Oh, please! When has that stopped me?"

"It should stop you now." Ray butted into the conversation. Takashi and Karin turned their heads slightly to stare at him.

"What's your deal, Ray? You're acting all apathetic and cruel again, like the asshole you are." Karin said angrily.

"I'm saying that if you rush into this forest, whic convienently called the Forest of _Death, _thinking that you are going to crush every single person in there, then you'll get picked off first, and it'll be your fault." Ray snapped back, making Karin lean back slightly, as if she was trying to get away from him.

"You know, Karin, he does make a good point. We need to act as a team if we're going to make it through alive."

"Hmph! Fine, but don't expect me to save your sorry little asses if you guys get into trouble."

"We don't expect you to." Ray said calmly, now back to his old self. Takashi couldn't help but agree with him. A lot of the time, Karin wouldn't even consider saving them, no matter what the situation was. Josh would eventually have to force her to help them out of whatever the hell they were in. Takashi withheld a sigh and looked at his teammates.

"We better get going, if we want to make it there on time."

"He has a point." Karin said tiredly. Ray simply nodded and began to head for the door. Karin and Takashi looked at each other one last time before following their teammate out the door and out into the wilderness. They walked in tense silence, none of them having anything to say and knowing what was ahead of them. _I just hope that we can get through this test without ripping each other to pieces. That's my biggest fear out of eveything else. _Takashi thought to himself. He wasn't about to let his teammates know what was on his mind. They already had enough on their minds and didn't need his worries clogging up their brains.

* * *

All twenty teams were at the front entrance to the Forest of Death, including Akahana's team, Dante's team, Ray's team, and Haruo's team. Anko and Rika were standing in front of the squads, staring at them intently. Rika knew them all from the written tests and the brief descriptions given to her from the Hokage himself. She glanced over at her superior and wondered for just a moment what was on her mind. She forced the thought back and turned to the rookies again. She cracked her fingers and crossed her arms over her chest. Anko then cleared her throat, seemingly getting everyone's attention, and spoke in a loud voice,

"Alright, you rookies, welcome to the second part of the Chunin Exams! As you all know, this is called the Forest of Death, also known as the 44th Training Ground. There are 44 gates around the perimeter. Each team will stand at one gate until you are given the signal to goal is to reach the tower in the middle of this forest within five days, which has a radius of about ten kilometers. You'll need to read a contract outlining the rules of this part of the exam." Rika walked over to Rose and handed her a medium-sized pile of papers, telling her to hand one out to each person. She took the pile from Rika's hands, removed the first piece of paper, and handed the stack off to her teammates. Anko continued explaining,

"Each team will get one scroll each. There are two types of scrolls," She pulled out two scrolls, one white and the other blue. ",the Heaven scroll and the Earth scroll. Your team must get both scrolls in order to be let into the tower. And there's something you absolutely _can not _do." Everyone was in anticipation, staring at her intently. Some of the genin were actually standing on their toes, as if that was going to help them know what they wanted to know faster. They wanted to know what the heck the proctor was going to say next. Dante had to bite his lip in order to keep himself from screaming out the question that was on everyone's minds. Anko then relieved them of their anticipation,

"You can't look inside of the scroll."

"Well, what happens if we do?" Ray asked. Anko smiled somewhat evilly, irking the boy a bit.

"Let's just say that you don't want to know what happens." _As if. _He thought bitterly.

"Also, a few heads-up. There are three conditions that might take place and will forbid your team from entering the tower; if you and your team can not make it to the tower within the five day limit, if you do not have both scrolls, and if one of your teammates is incapacitated and can not continue. There are perils within this forest that you'll need to watch out for, like giant insects. Those things will get you if you're not careful. Now, one member from each team will go up to the table and get one scroll for their team." Everyone began reading the contract within their hands. As that was happening, Dante looked up and saw curtains covering the tables. _That must be to prevent from people knowing which team has what scroll. That makes things somewhat harder for everyone, but hey, Yumi-sensei said that this test was going to be like no other. If we're going to even have a chance of getting through this and making it to the tower in one piece, we need to act as a team more than ever. _Dante then noticed that Yuuta was standing in front of him, holding out his hand.

"What?"

"You done reading?"

"Uuhh...w-well, yeah. I was just rereading it. You can take it, if you want." He handed his contract to Yuuta and saw his teammate walk over to the table. He then looked over toward Rose, who was shifting her weight from one foot to the other. He knew that she was somewhat of a nervous wreck. He didn't exactly blame her, considering what they were just told by the proctor. He then noticed that Yuuta had returned, but with no scroll.

"Where's the scroll, buddy?" Dante asked in a whisper.

"It's in my weapons pouch." Yuuta replied.

"Oh..." He mentally facepalmed. _Duh! We're ninja here, and it's the Chunin Exams to boot! What am I thinking here? I must be going crazy. _Dante forced the thought into the back of his head and shoved his hands into his pockets.

He didn't have much more time to think, since now the teams were now being ushered to their respective gates. He followed Yuuta and Rose to their gate, which was gate number 14. Akahana's team had gate number 37, Ray's team had gate number 6, and Haruo's team had gate number 23. Anko was watching the second hand on her wristwatch make its way around the clock. Every team was now at their respective gates, waiting for the test to begin. The second hand hit the twelve, making the time change to one thirty.

"Alright, heads-up, you maggots! The second part of the Chunin Exams has begun! You may proceed in!" Almost as she was done talking, the chains on twenty of the forty-four gates unlocked simultaneously and the heavy chains falling to the ground, the gates swinging open. Every team sped into the forest, eager to get the other scroll for their team and to eliminate the competition...

* * *

Finally done! I apologize for taking so long to get this chapter out. I've had to deal with some issues at home and my brain has refused to lend me any ideas for a while. And writing it at 3 or 4 in the morning isn't exactly the greatest of ideas, either. I promise that I'll post chapters more often!

I know that I should've said this at the beginning of the story, but I do not own any ideas or characters from Naruto. The series belongs to Masashi Kishimoto and the other people that created Naruto.


	8. Death Awaits?-Part 1

**Chapter 8: Death Awaits...?-Part 1**

When the gates opened, every team ran into the forest, heading in the direction of the tower. They were moving pretty fast, eager to get their hands on the scrolls that they needed and to kill anyone standing in their way. And Ray's team seemed to be the most eager out of all the teams (killing the other people there, anyway). Ray was in the lead, his teammates barely able to keep up with him. Takashi had seen this before from the black-haired male; this had happened quite a few times in the past, so it was really no surprise to him. Karin had seen it as well and just as many times as Takashi (even though she didn't like to admit it that much). The two of them kept their mouths shut and continued to follow their teammate deeper and deeper into this vast and deadly forest.

Then Ray did something neither Takashi or Karin expected; he stopped dead in his tracks. The two stopped right behind him and noticed that the male was scanning the area carefully, moving his head slowly and his eyes checking every nook and cranny they could so no detail would go unmemorized. Takashi and Karin silently watched him. The purple-haired male looked toward the blonde-haired female and wondered why she wasn't scolding him for suddenly just stopping and scanning the entire area that they were in. _It can't be that...she actually _understands _what Ray is doing at the moment? There is just no way! _He did not dare say any of this aloud. He didn't want to end up as one of the first people dead in this spooky forest. There was no way that was happening to him anytime soon!

A piercing scream split the silence of the forest, and the three ninja turned their heads in the direction of the noise. They listened for any other screams that might signal where someone was. However, after about a minute of silence, they turned toward each other and Ray was the first to speak,

"Well, someone just died."

"That's obvious, genius." Karin spat.

"Question is, what or who got to that person?" Takashi asked.

"Who knows? But if I had to guess, it was probably some_thing, _not someone, who killed that person." Ray's answer sent shivers up and down Takashi's spine. _Note to self: Ray will be creepy, no matter where we are. _He brushed the thought off and glanced at Ray.

"Should we move? We don't exactly want to be sitting ducks and wait for our deaths to come by."

"Yeah. That would be a good idea." Karin silently nodded her agreement and the three ninja began to run through the many branches of the trees, somehow avoiding vines and dangling branches that were in their way. Ray was in the lead once again, with Karin and Takashi on his tail. Takashi found it strange that Karin wasn't trying to be the leader of the group. He had thought that she would try to gain her revenge because of her loss at the race that they had not too long after they became teammates. He kept this inside his head and willingly followed his teammates.

The three ninja had not encountered anyone in a while, and this was starting to get on all their nerves. What the heck was going on? Why weren't they bumping into people? Why wasn't anyone trying to attack them and take their scroll? This baffled them and got onto their nerves. Ray's bloodlust was growing and it was getting harder and harder to contain it within himself. Karin wanted to punch someone horribly and send them straight into one of the trees. Takashi just wanted someone to appear so they would have someone to attack. He did not like the vibes he was receiving from his fellow ninja. It was beginning to scare him out of his mind.

Suddenly, he felt someone grab his shoulders tight and fling him into one of the trees behind him, despite that he was running just a few moments ago at fast speeds. He felt his lungs give up whatever air that they had in them forcefully and fell onto a branch not even a foot below him. He tried to get up, but was knocked straight back down by a kick to the side of his head. He had to grab onto the branch just to keep himself from falling off and plummeting more than sixty feet to either severe pain or death. _Luckily I can flip over and land on my feet. I'm a damn shinobi, after all. _He then dared a look up at his assailant and frowned. Their face was covered by a black mask, and their clothing and hair just blended in with the mask. He cursed silently to himself and bit his lip hard enough to draw blood. The figure spoke in a female voice, hardened by annoyance,

"Alright, hand over your scroll or you die."

"And what makes you think that I have the scroll, you frickin' piece of crap? Seriously, everyone goes after me, and half the time I didn't do anything wrong. Why don't you kindly ask one of my teammates you apparently have forgotten about?" The female assailant's eye twitched in annoyance. She was just about to voice her reply to his question when an angry voice that Takashi recognized rang through their ears,

"Why don't pick on someone your own size, bitch?!" _Ah, Karin, you never change. _Takashi laughed in his head. The female assailant turned their head and their eyes widened when they saw Karin coming toward them with a fist ready to strike. They moved just in time not to get hit and Karin landed where they used to be.

"Dammit..." She cursed under her breath. Takashi managed to pull himself up and stood beside his teammate.

"Any ideas on how we're going to get this ninja?"

"We'll have to find her first. Once we do, we attack her, you using water style and me using earth style." Karin answered with a serious tone. Takashi found himself smiling, despite who he was next to. _Seriously, man. That's the only thing about you that doesn't get on my nerves. _The two jumped from the branch and landed with hardly a sound on the ground. Surprisingly, they found Ray fighting the mysterious attacker. He was throwing knives at her, but she was somehow always able to dodge them. Takashi took out a kunai and threw it as hard as he could at the female ninja. She dodged it by moving to the right, but didn't see the paper bomb attached to it until they looked over and noticed it. They jumped up just in time for the paper bomb to explode, sending fire and smoke some distance. They landed softly on the ground, just in time to have a ball of fire coming toward them, courtesy of Karin. They dodged it, but some of the fire caught their inner shin on their right leg. They felt the sting and burn of the wound and grimaced in pain. _They're good, I'll admit that. But they're not good enough. _She weaved some hand signs and spoke just above a whisper,

"**Water Style: Water Missile Jutsu!" **Just then, five bodies of water that were shaped like missiles headed toward the young ninja at incredible speeds.

"Takashi, do something, you dumbass!" Karin screamed. _Oh, shut up. I know! _Takashi hollered in his head. He weaved some signs and looked at the missiles directly with a defiant look in his eye.

"**Water Style: Water Wall!"** A large amount of water was suddenly acting as a wall from the missiles, protecting him and his teammates at the same time. Several moments later, the water fell down, creating large puddles on the forest floor. Takashi found himself panting a little. _Then again, I haven't used this jutsu for a while. _He didn't go on one knee and allow himself to recover further. Instead, he signaled to Ray to go ahead and get the assailant. Ray nodded and disappeared quickly, reappearing behind the female ninja. He put a knife to their throat and leaned in close. He whispered in their ear with a voice that spilled venom,

"Listen up. It's one thing to attack one of my teammates and beat the utter living crap out of them. It's another to attack both of them at the same time. I do not forgive my enemies easily. So, I'll give you a couple options. One; you hand over your scroll and walk away from this without another injury. Two; you resist and I kill you, and then I take your scroll. What's it going to be?"

"Go pick on someone your own skill level, you stinkin' kid."

"Alright. You've left me with no choice." A wicked smile danced its way onto his lips. The woman turned her head slightly and noticed it. A scared expression came onto her face and she began to struggle with all her might. Takashi came over and restrained her legs by wrapping his body around them, but not without getting kicked a few times in the gut and chest. He withheld a groan of pain and wrapped himself tighter around her legs to eliminate any chances of her running away and getting help. Ray took the knife away from her throat and stuck it straight in her back, right in the middle of it. The woman spasmed a bit before going limp. Takashi let go of her legs and rolled backwards a couple times just in time for the woman's corpse to fall forward with a thud. Ray looked at the corpse with no interest whatsoever. Takashi whistled for a few seconds before stopping and Karin showed up in less than fifteen seconds. The three ninja looked at the body carefully, as if examining an important document. Ray then knelt down and rummaged through the woman's pouch. He found what he was looking for not too long after and pulled it out. When he pulled it out, a curse was on his tongue and had to bite his lower lip just to keep it from escaping him.

"What?" Karin asked with a hint of concern and urgency.

"It's a damn Heaven scroll. We need an Earth scroll before we can get access to the tower." Ray replied angrily. Takashi took the scroll from him and realized what Ray had said. He threw it back to him and Ray caught it just before it hit him in the face. He then stood up and looked over at his teammates.

"Let's go."

"Right!" Then the three ninja dashed off, leaving the scene behind, searching for a ninja that hopefully had the Earth scroll that they were looking for.

* * *

Ray's team just survived an attack from a mysterious ninja. How are the other teams doing? Find out in the next chapter!


	9. Death Awaits?-Part 2

**Chapter 9: Death Awaits...?-Part 2**

Haruo's team was one of the fastest teams in there besides Ray's. Haruo wanted to get a head start on this exam, get the Heaven scroll that his team needed, and get to the tower in the middle of the forest before the five day limit was up. _And before I go crazy, thank you very much. _He angrily thought. He had been listening to his younger sister Ayane talking about how she was going to toy with her enemies before she killed them, and frankly, it was starting to seriously get on his nerves. He was starting to wish that he could tell her to put a sock in it and kill her before she had a chance to respond. He was starting to regret coming to the Chunin Exams with her. He felt like he was going to lose his marbles way before this stupid test was over.

There was only one thing keeping him from going insane, and that was his younger brother Lee. He was the most sane one of the bunch, and Haruo had to admit, he was slightly envious of his brother. He never said anything about it, though. He loved his brother too much to say something vile like that to him. He had noticed that he had been abnormally quiet for the past hour, and it was beginning to concern him a bit. Sure, Lee was always the quiet one of the group, not really having much to say in a conversation, but him being _this _quiet was unusual for him. He glanced over his shoulder for a moment and noticed the puzzled look on his brother's face. He turned back around just in time to avoid a hanging branch. _Damn branches..._ He wanted to ask Lee what was bothering him, but was too focused on how to make his sister shut the hell up at the moment.

He stopped suddenly and jumped straight toward the ground. Lee and Ayane noticed this and did the same thing Haruo just did. The three landed on the ground in crouching positions and stood up. Haruo surveyed his two siblings, judging their current positions and expressions on their faces. Lee still looked puzzled like a kid trying to solve a complicated mathematical equation, and Ayane looked just as happy as a kid who had gotten a large lollipop for their birthday. He bit off whatever personal things he wanted to say to his younger sister and cracked his knuckles in order to get their attention. Once he had their attention, he cleared his throat and began to speak in his calm voice,

"Alright, here's the situation we face now. We're about an hour into the test and we haven't seen a single soul besides each other. However, it _is _a big forest, so that has to be expected. We also need the Heaven scroll if we're going to even have a shot of getting into that tower and continuing on with these exams. We need to locate a team that has the scroll we're looking for, take it, and make it to the tower before the five days we have are up. We need to know that everyone else is an enemy and should not be shown any kindness or mercy. Also, we are _not _to split up for any means unless I say so. Got it?" Ayane and Lee nodded simultaneously. Haruo calmed down a bit and let out a breath he hadn't realized he was holding in. However, this was going to be a very bad mistake. He suddenly felt the hairs on the back of his neck stand vertical and tensed up.

"Ayane, Lee! Looks like we've got company! Cover each others' backs now!" Lee and Ayane understood immediately and stood back to back with Haruo. Just then, three shadowy figures came out of the trees and surrounded them. Haruo quickly judged the one in front of him and assumed from the amount of muscle he had that he could use earth style jutsu. _And it seems me using earth style jutsu is pointless, since our attacks would just cancel each other out time and time again. I'll have to use lightning style. _Ayane got the female of the group of attackers, from what she could tell. Lee got the other male of the group and was pretty nervous about the guy in front of him. It looked like the guy was ready to rip his guts out on the spot for just being there. He glanced over at Haruo and whispered anxiously,

"What are we going to do? I think we're ready to kill us for just existing."

"We have to fight them off. It's the only way we're going to have a chance of surviving, Lee."

"Yeah, you might want to listen to your buddy there, shorty." The enemy facing Lee said in a mocking manner. _Excuse me, but he's my brother, you dip. It's clearly noticeable! Aren't you looking at us?! _Lee had to bit his tongue just to keep these words from escaping him and possibly getting into deeper water than he was already in. The enemy's buddies started laughing at this comment. Haruo took this opportunity to weave some signs and kneel down, slamming one of his hands down in the process.

"**Chidori Stream!" **Just then, several bolts of lightning raced from Haruo's hand and toward his assailant. They noticed, but not in time. The ground bolts reached the person's shins and gave them a good shocking. They were shocked somewhat horribly and fell down after Haruo stopped his technique. A smile danced its way onto his lips when he saw his foe fall flat onto his face. The two other ninja were horrified at what just happened.

"What did you do to him?!" The female ninja shrieked.

"Ow! Geez, woman, you're worse than my sister, and she can be pretty loud herself, chum." Haruo said as he was cleaning his ears with a finger. Ayane's eye twitched a little and was cursing Haruo in her mind for insulting her like that. Lee had to catch himself before he started laughing. He didn't want to get punched in the back of the head by Ayane for doing something wrong. Haruo suddenly spoke again,

"And if you're still wondering what I did to your little buddy, well, I'll tell you this. He's just received a shocking that's probably just as bad as sitting in an electric chair being shocked for three seconds or so." The smile came back onto his lips, and then some. The female ninja was getting pissed at him. She reached into her pouch and pulled out a few shuriken. She then threw them straight at Haruo as hard as she could, but were blocked by some kunai thrown by Lee. The weapons fell to the ground in between the group and the female ninja. Haruo turned his head to look at his siblings, and they turned their heads to look at him. A few seconds passed before the three silently nodded their heads and turned back to face the two remaining enemies.

Suddenly, the three siblings dispersed into the forest, leaving the two enemies standing there, confused. The female ninja turned to her scary-looking partner and asked in an annoyed tone,

"Where the hell did they go?"

"I-I don't know! Don't look at me!"

"Then who else am I supposed to be looking at, huh? Your imaginary friend?"

"He's not imaginary! He's just invisible."

"That makes him imaginary."

"No, it doesn't!"

"Yes, it does, you twit! Now help me find those brats!" As the two enemy ninja were bickering, Haruo had positioned himself behind the male ninja in the trees and watched him as he defended himself against his female partner. He had to stifle a laugh when he saw this. _Holy crap, they argue like a married couple. That's just hilarious! _He shoved that thought into the back of his mind and poised himself for attack. Lee and Ayane were behind the female ninja, staring over at Haruo's position. He noticed them after a minute and nodded. The three jumped out of their hiding places and landed behind the two ninja. Ayane leaned in and whispered to her foe while gripping their shoulders with a very tight squeeze,

"I don't think it would be appropriate to insult your own friend. It'll just lead to bad things. Is this how you express yourself to other people? You release your anger upon them? You treat them like trash? Huh?" Her assailant was getting more and more frustrated the more Ayane spoke. She finally had the guts to turn around and whisper with venom,

"You're going to die here, bitch."

"Ooh, am I? I'd like to see you try."

"Wha-" Before she could finish her sentence, a pang of pain started from her upper arm and spread through her entire body like a wildfire destroying a dry field. A loud scream was emitted from them as they fell down, clutching their arm like it was falling off. Ayane turned to look at her younger brother Lee and raised an eyebrow, bewildered as to what he just did. Lee took the opportunity to answer his sister's unspoken question,

"I basically injected a poison into her system. It won't kill her, but it will paralyze her for some time." Ayane nodded and knelt down, rummaging through the woman's pouch. She grabbed onto something and pulled it out. It was a Heaven scroll, the thing that they were looking for. _Bingo! _She glanced over to where the other male ninja was and noticed that neither the enemy or Haruo were there. _Where could they possibly have gone? Geez, Haruo-nii, you're really difficult to understand. _Sometimes, she just had no idea as to what her brother was doing when they weren't looking. Le was wondering the same thing and hoped that Haruo was not getting himself into a situation that could potentially get him seriously hurt or killed. That sent shivers up and down his spine and put goose bumps on his skin. Ayane did not notice this development in her brother and stood up.

"We should try to find Haruo as soon as possible and report our findings."

"Yeah, we should do that." As soon as he finished talking, a flash of lightning came up behind them and a howl split the air just as much as the lightning. Ayane and Lee nodded to one another and swiftly ran in the direction of the flash. When they got there, they noticed Haruo standing there in the middle of an open patch of land, blood covering almost half of his left arm and the male ninja flat on his face, a hole in his chest where his heart used to be. Lee took a few seconds to pray for the dead man before he joined his sister in walking to Haruo.

"Hey, bro! We've got good news!" Ayane shouted. Haruo glanced over at his siblings and his expression lightened up a little, but still remained apathetic.

"What?" He replied.

"We've got the enemy's Heaven scroll! Now we just need to get to the tower!"

"Good job, you two. I'm proud." Ayane smiled big and hugged Haruo, despite the pep talks he had given to her about not touching him after a battle, and Lee stood to the side, watching his brother and sister with a small smile on his face. Haruo had pushed Ayane off of her and was scolding her about hugging him right after finishing off an opponent. Lee had to suppress a laugh when Ayane pouted. She could be so cute sometimes. He looked up into the sky and noticed that the sky was beginning to grow dark. However, instead of saying something, he simply stood there, watching the colors in the sky blend into the midnight blue that he loved so much. Now, they could focus on one thing; getting to the tower alive and in one piece.

* * *

Haruo's team have gotten their scroll and are about to head for the tower. But, what about the other two teams? What are they doing? Find out in the next chapter coming soon!


End file.
